Tempus Fugit
by Nocte Nebula
Summary: Alecto Bellatore and Tempus, meister and weapon, working in sync. Together, they face down kishin, witches, interpersonal problems, and aid in the DWMA's long-standing fight against evil. F!OC/Death the Kid.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N - This is the very first fanfiction I've ever had the nerve to post on the internet, or share with anyone really. I've had the idea in my head for a while, and I'd appreciate it if you'd leave reviews and told me what you think!_

_I'm aware that I do make a couple fanfiction faux pas when it comes to OCs (at least, I've been told they're faux pas), the biggest being just pushing an OC into the main story and writing it as if they've been there all along, but considering this is a fanfiction on the internet with absolutely no substantial impact on anything, I think we can let it slide. ;)_

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter One - Time Flies! The Tea-Loving Meister's Swift Entrance, Part 1**

* * *

A leering, blood-mouthed moon loomed over the Death City, its horrendous eye eternally staring down at the streets below. The moon gave no light to the unnervingly quiet alleys, nor did it give any semblance of care towards the rare few who walked the streets at night. It merely loomed and watched. And for that reason alone, it was the safest, most comforting part of Death City's nighttime.

If only the monster currently making his way through the city's darkest roads would allow the people of Death City the same courtesy.

The sound of chains echoed throughout an alleyway as a being who was well on his way to truly losing his sense of morality stumbled and dodged past the garbage cans and long-empty boxes. His pallid face has been permanently twisted into a horrific grin of malice, and the large chains that he had wrapped around himself clashed and clattered around his hands and feet, glinting menacingly in the moonlight. This man was the kidnapper and killer Hudine, a man whose soul had been warped into a Kishin egg, a man who now hungered for human souls.

A man who had his eye on his next kill.

An olive-skinned young girl no older than fourteen, with long, pink hair that was tied back by a bright blue bow, was several meters ahead of him, casting a frightened look behind her as she fled from him. Down the alley they ran, and had he retained some semblance of who he was before, he would have been impressed by her ability to evade the danger that was closing in on her heels. But right now he only cared for one thing: her soul.

The girl rounded a corner into an adjacent alleyway, slipping out of Hudine's sight. He let out a vicious groan of frustration, his sharpened and yellowed teeth gritting together as he bolted forward with an extra burst of speed. It was only a moment later that he rounded the same corner, and she came back into view, standing trapped at the far end of the alley with no way out.

Alongside a boy that, in all logic, shouldn't have been there.

This boy was about the same age as the girl in appearance, but that was where the physical similarities ended. He was taller and his skin was much darker than hers, with his long ponytail and sharply angular eyes a sharp golden in contrast to her girl's pink hair and coal-black eyes. The girl's eyes had a much gentler look to them, softening the harsh gaze she was giving Hudine. They dressed differently, too. The girl's clothes were much more casual, being a romper the color of cocoa powder over dark tights and a light brown jacket that was cropped at the waist. Compared to the boy's serious, almost businesslike suit the color of burnished gold, the two of them didn't even look like they belonged in the same social circle, much less in the same dangerous situation. staring down Hudine together.

And yet they were, and suddenly Hudine felt like he was mean to be the trapped one. The sense of being lured in like a fly in a spider's parlor sent a thrill of exhilaration down his spine, and his wicked smile only widened.

"You're late," the boy declared, tucking the golden bangs in front of his right eye away from his face and behind his ear with a practiced sweep of the hand. He was talking not to Hudine but to the girl, who shot him a solid glare in response. "You should have been here a few minutes ago, at the very least. I was getting worried."

"Cut me some slack," the girl said. "I had to make sure I didn't look too sure of where I was going. Didn't want this guy to catch on to the fact that I was bait." There was a strange accent in her voice, an accent that almost sounded Italian to Hudine's untrained ears, but not quite.

"I suppose that makes sense. I'd appreciate a bit more punctuality, though." The boy stared evenly at Hudine. "Are we going to take him out?"

"Of course." The girl pointed at Hudine, her expression quickly hardening into one of determination. "You there, kidnapper Hudine! In the name of the Death Weapon Meister Academy, your actions against humanity have rendered your life and soul forfeit, and I, Alecto Bellatore, have come to collect!"

A maniacal grin stretched from ear to ear on Hudine's face, and his only response was a sharp, gleeful cackle. "Heh heh heh… _Ha ha ha ha ha! Haaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha!_" A meister! Oh, how lucky was he to be so close to feasting upon a meister's soul! And with such a challenge attached! Oh, how he would enjoy cutting his way from _this_ little spider's web.

The girl seemed unnerved by this, taking a shaky step backward. "Uh, Tempus, is he supposed to be laughing?"

"He's the type to get excited by the idea of trapping someone, remember," the boy pointed out, his expression unchanging through all of this. "He's probably just as excited by the idea of getting trapped. Or maybe he's laughing and your ludicrous diatribe. 'Rendered your soul forfeit,'_ really_, Ally?"

The girl scowled. "Well, pardon me for trying to make myself feel like a badass." She reached out toward the golden-haired boy, placing the palm of her right hand flat against her chest. "Let's get this oh-we…_ over_ with."

"Gladly." The boy faded away into a form of light so bright that Hudine was forced to look away. When he looked back, the boy was gone. And the girl now had a weapon, a bizarre two-sided spear that was connected to a bronze buckler shield on her right wrist. The intricate gears and markings of the buckler and the distinct arrow shape of the spearheads reminded Hudine of something, but he couldn't remember at the moment. And, to be frank, he didn't care. All he cared about was the soul that hummed within the depth's of the girl's heart, the soul that he would soon be feasting upon.

With the mightiest of only barely human screeches, he yanked his hands apart, shattering the chains that bound them together as if they were wet paper. His limp black hair fell in front of his eyes, swathing the view in front of him in a filter of darkness. He leapt forward, swinging the halved remnants of the chains in an overhead arc aimed directly at her head.

She hadn't appeared to move a muscle as he moved to attack, so he was quite surprised to find that she had simply disappeared when the chain was supposed to make contact with her skull. There was no hint of her having moved, and yet she simply _wasn't there_. He crashed to the ground ineffectively. "What the hell?!" he exclaimed.

"Oh-wer he-ere!" A singsong voice echoed from behind him. Hudine whirled around to see the girl standing a few meters away, the curled tips of her rose-pink hair bouncing slightly as she rocked back and forth on the heels of her boot-clad feet.

Her undeniable _smugness_ made Hudine want nothing more than to rip her face off of her skull before he tore her soul from her body. Before it had been a simple hunger, a need to feast on the delicious innocence of an uncorrupted human soul and sate the craving that had lodged itself in the back of his throat. Now he wanted to see her taken down a peg, to turn this spider's web back in on her and trap her instead.

"You!" he snarled. "You won't trap me! I'll break your trap, and then I'll break you!"

The girl met his glare, raising her arm toward him so that the longer spear of her weapon was pointed directly at his throat. "_Brutum fulmen_," she snapped in response. "Just come and try it."

* * *

_"Damn it, Ally, you're getting cocky!"_

"It's fine," Alecto Bellatore muttered. "He's too slow and obvious. We'll take him down in ten minutes flat."

_"Our time or the rest of the world's time?"_

"Ours. He won't know what hit him."

_"If you're sure…"_ Tempus didn't sound very convinced, and she could see him in the back of her mind, giving her a look of doubt. _"Just be careful with your ego. You don't want to end up like Black Star, do you?"_

Alecto let out hiss as she tensed up, preparing to dive out of the way from Hudine's chains. "Shut up. I'm nothing like him. I've gotten you souls, haven't I?"

Hudine whipped his chains towards her, the silver links turning into a bright blur as they arced towards her. She concentrated her focus on her slow wavelength, pushing aside the instinctive apprehension that dared to intrude itself on her thoughts. She focused on the rippling of her soul wavelength and the beating of her heart and willed it to beat faster, to beat faster than that of her opponent.

With a quiet, almost imperceptible_ tick_ of Tempus's gears, the world around her rippled and seemed to shift into an almost standstill. The meister and weapon knew better, though; it was _their_ time that had sped up, rather than the rest of the world slowing down. Alecto had bought herself the vital time needed, and she wasn't going to waste it playing around this time. She ducked under the now barely-moving chains, running towards the evil-souled kidnapper, a surety in her footsteps only granted by the temporary desynchronization in time. "Besides, Tempus," she cried out, swinging her arm in a wide sweep. "You know what my motto is in this sort of situation!"

_Tock_. Time synchronized itself again, and Hudine pulled back, visibly shocked by her apparent teleportation to right in front of him. Alecto swung Tempus toward his face, the weapon's "minute hand" spear glinting menacingly in the faint light of the stars.

_"Qui audet adipiscitur!"_ she screamed.

The spear tore into Hudine's face, creating a large but unfortunately shallow cut across his cheeks and nose. He let out an angry cry and pulled away, clutching at his face. "What the hell did you do?!"

"It doesn't matter," Alecto said, backing away and holding up her arms in a defensive stance, the clockwork buckler facing outwards. He was practically frothing at the mouth with rage, and that made him more dangerous offensively. Of course, that meant that hopefully he would begin to lower _his_ defenses down. "It will be easier on you if you just give up and surrender your life now."

"Never!" Hudine snapped, swinging his chains around in a bizarre and almost randomized fashion. "You think the great Houdini would allow himself to simply give into his traps? If not, then why should I?"

"Because you're not Houdini," Alecto said. _Tick_. She stepped to the side, carving another shallow cut into Hudine's arm. _Tock_. Hudine swung again, the look in his eyes more akin to a rabid animal's than a human's. "Harry Houdini was a master illusionist, escapologist, and even a pilot at one point." _Tick_. She leapt upwards, narrowly avoiding getting tripped up by a chain aimed towards her feet. _Tock_. "You are a kidnapper and murderer, who has taken a bastardization of Houdini's stage name in an attempt to make yourself seem more amazing than you truly are, isn't that right?" _Tick_. She maneuvered behind him and lunged forward, punching the air and driving the spearhead a couple inches into his back._ Tock_. "That's all you are, Hudine. A bastardization of the real deal." She pulled the spear back, causing a spray of blood to stain the ground. _Tick_. "Tempus," she said, directing her words to her weapon, "how're you holding up?"

_"Good. He seems to be holding up better, which worries me. I know it takes a while to wear our opponents down, but after our initial surprise we haven't even seemed to faze him. And…"_

"And?"

_"I hope that I am simply overthinking this, but his attacks have been unusually haphazard, haven't they? It's like he's not even aiming for us."_

Alecto looked around. Tempus had a point; the chains that were previously wrapped around Hudine were now strewn all over the place, many of them not even close to anywhere she had previously been. "You're right," she said, wariness creeping into her voice. "What's going on?"

_Tock._

A low chuckle emanated from Hudine's lips, a chuckle that turned into a vicious, terrifyingly gleeful cackle that sent an icy chill running down Alecto's spine. With fear finally having broken through her bravado and wrapping itself around her heart in a death grip, she turned to run away, not thinking about desynchronizing time again to give her the seconds that could have aided in her escape.

Hudine yanked upon his chains, bringing them all flying towards his hunched form. The chain closest to Alecto's feet whipped around her ankle, causing her to stumble and crash to the ground. Hudine yanked the chains again, and she was dragged towards him at a startling speed.

"_Ally!"_ Tempus cried out in panic. _"Don't use your soul wavelength! The chain will be affected by the desynchronization, too, and it will just drag you toward him faster!"_

"Damn!" Alecto scrambled helplessly against the ground in a desperately bid to gain some sort of grip against the ground and slow herself down. Nothing; the damned ground was far too smooth. She cursed whoever had paved the darkened streets of Death City, and turned back to Hudine, who was dragging her closer with his left hand while holding the broken remnants of another chain in his right.

"I'm going to bash your head in for that!" Hudine said. "Call me a bastardization? Call _me_ a bastardization?! I will be a master of traps, just like the great Houdini was!"

"Tempus!" Alecto screamed, a desperate and panic-fueled idea for survival bursting into her mind. "Fiwe-thirty o'clock mode, now!" Her accent slipped a little, but she didn't care.

_"Got it!"_ With a distinct whirring noise and grinding of gears, Tempus's shorter "hour hand" spear rotated almost a whole hundred-and-eighty degrees, stopping just short of the minute hand spear. Alecto stuck her arm out, pointing the spears towards the rapidly-approaching Hudine, and closed her eyes, praying to the hideous moon above her for some miracle of luck.

It seemed her request for fortune had been granted, for she heard and felt the solid _thud_ of Tempus's spearheads colliding with something, and she stopped suddenly. Opening one eye, she peeked at the scene in front of her. The spears had buried themselves into Hudine's midsection; not enough to cause any damage to his more vital organs, but enough to cause him a fair bit of pain if the expression on his face was any indication. He backed away, gripping the spears and pulling them out of his torso with a rather sickening sound. "Ah, so that's what I was reminded of," he said, his voice strained. "A clock…"

The words were meaningless to Alecto, but immediately upon saying it, Hudine started cackling again. Dropping the chains to the ground with a clatter, he turned and ran away, fading into the shadows before Alecto could stop him.

"Hey, wait!" she cried out, shaking the chain off her ankle. "Come back! We haven't even taken your soul yet!" Silence was the only response. "Aw, hell," she muttered, pulling herself to her feet. "We've gotta catch up to him! If he gets away, he's just going to kidnap and kill more people, and we may never get you his soul!"

_"Right!"_ Tempus's hands swung back into the twelve-thirty position they were always at. Allect ran forward, and as their soul wavelengths connected and expanded, the ticking and subsequent temporal desynchronization started up again.

_Tick._ She couldn't see any sign of him, but she knew he couldn't have gotten far. Even if his soul was that of a Kishin egg, his legs were still those of a human.

_Tock._ "You can't run from us, Hudine!" she yelled.

_Tick._ She scanned the rooftops. Nothing.

_Tock._ "We'll take your soul, and make you pay for all the people you hurt!"

_Tick. "Ally…"_

_Tock._ "Do you hear me, Hudine? You won't win!"

_Tick. "Ally! It's no use! He's gone. We probably won't be able to find him again tonight."_

_Tock._ Alecto fell to her knees, trembling as she fought to hold back the tears that were threatening to well up in the corners of her eyes. "No… no! We planned so much, we worked so hard for this, and for what? Him to get away and us without a Kishin egg for our troubles? I thought we could turn the tables and trap him, but instead I was the one who ended up trapped!"

_Tick. "I know. But he can't run forever. We'll keep tracking him, and we'll find him eventually. But right now we need to head back and patch ourselves up. You've got some pretty bad scrapes, Ally."_

_Tock._ Ally stared down at her hands, at the raw and torn skin from when she had tried to stop herself from skidding across the ground. She glanced down at her legs, noticing more than a few tears and scrapes in both her tights and legs. She winced. "Okay. Yeah. We'll go get patched up. But we're going to get him, right?

_Tick. "Of course we are,"_ Tempus said reassuringly. _"Qui audet adipiscitur, remember? 'He who dares, gets,' if I remember correctly."_

_Tock_. Alecto managed to let out a weak chuckle, standing up again. "Your pronunciation is terrible."

_Tick_. Tempus transformed back into his human form with a bright flash of light, his bronze-brown shoes hitting the ground with barely an noise. He looked over his shoulder at her, a grin stretching across his dark features. "Oh, like you're one to talk," he said. "'Fiwe-o-clock,' really?"

"Oh, hush, you know I have trouble with that." She started to walk in the general direction of home, with Tempus close on her heels. The two of them _would_ catch Hudine, she thought, clenching her hands into determined fists. Even if it took them weeks and a dozen efforts, his corrupted soul would be theirs, and it would be one step closer to making Tempus a Death Scythe, a weapon fit for Lord Death himself.

_Tock._

* * *

_A/N - Did you know that Harry Houdini was actually not Houdini's given name? His birth name is Erik Weisz! I learned that when looking him up for writing this chapter. And people say that fanfiction is useless! I also learned a smidge of Latin, too! Actual Latin, not Google Translate or Harry Potter Latin!_

_Speaking of Latin, here's the translations for some of the things that Alecto says:_

**_Brutum fulmen:_**_ Literally means "harmless thunderbolt," and is a metaphor equivalent to "all bark and no bite." Essentially, Alecto is saying that Hudine can't back up his threats. Hm. Wonder how well that worked out for her._

**_Qui aud__et_**_** adipiscitur:** In this context, it means "She who dares, wins."_

_Chapter two is in the works, and should come out in a few days. In the meantime, don't forget to rate and review! Make sure to let me know if there's any formatting errors, too; I'm still getting the hang of fanfiction dot net's formatting system._

_- Diana "Nocte"_


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N - Welp, here's chapter two. I think it should be clear by now that I have no idea what I'm doing. Which is why you should review and tell me exactly what you think of this fic and what I do best/what I should improve on!_

_Also, thank you to Superhero17 for favoriting the fic! I was really excited when I looked at my stats and saw that!  
_

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Two - Time Flies! The Tea-Loving Meister's Swift Entrance, Part 2**

* * *

"I still can't believe you actually bring your tea and teacups to school. Aren't you worried about them breaking or something?" Tempus questioned, idly leaning against the wall opposite the mission board, his golden eyes focused on the pink-haired meister sitting on the floor beside him. Well, one of his eyes; he'd meticulously groomed his hair so that his long blonde bangs fell over his right eye.

"Not really. It's not like I'm doing this right in the middle of a practice spar or anything. And it's not_ just_ the cups and tea blends," Alecto said, unscrewing the top of the thermos she was holding with a well-practiced (and heavily bandaged) hand. "It's also the water. Having good water for tea is very important. You can't just use any old stagnant water."

"Of _course_ not," Tempus said, injecting just enough sarcasm into his words to annoy Alecto a little, but not enough to genuinely upset her. Tea was a big deal to the young Latin-speaking meister. "That would be a disgrace to the tea, I bet."

"Yes, actually!" Alecto said, dropping the handmade tea bags she'd brought with her into the three teacups she had laid out in front of her. "Tea is best when the water is freshly heated, but since that isn't an option at school, keeping the water I boiled in the thermos is the best option. The water won't be at the temperature it needs to be, but it'll be hot enough to brew a serviceable cup of tea." She poured the water into the cups. "This is why I always bring white tea to school. Keeping the water hot enough for, say, an herbal tea would be a lot more difficult."

"That was more knowledge on the brewing of tea than I ever needed or wanted to know," Tempus said, staring at Alecto. "Wait, if there's just the two of us, how come you've got three cups?" He began to fiddle with his tie nervously. If they were meeting with someone and he didn't look his absolute best, he'd fear he might faint from the mortification. A good impression was important, after all.

"Because I'm making tea for three people," Alecto retorted. "Didn't you hear people talking in the hallways? Apparently Black Star botched his 'assassination'" - she raised her hands to make finger quotes for emphasis - "attempt against Don Alcapone and his gang yesterday."

"So you're making him tea."

"Black Star? Of course not. He wouldn't appreciate this tea, anyways. It's white pear tea, a weh-ree… ugh, a _very_ mild blend with a crisp flavor to it. Probably too mild for the 'big man.'" More air quotes. "So yeah, Black Star isn't getting any tea from me. No, this is for-"

Before she could fully answer his question, a familiar shout of a phrase that in Tempus's thoughts had long overstayed its welcome in this world filled the air. "YAAAAAA-HOOOOOOO!" A boy too short for his ego and with hair too blue for his overblown personality barreled through the hallway, stopping right in front of the mission board. "Come on, Tsubaki!" the boy shouted.

"Coming!" A tall, pretty girl with porcelain-pale skin and ebony hair approached, a gentle expression on her face. She smiled at Tempus and Alecto as she approached. "Hello, you two!" she said. "Are you here to pick up another mission?"

Alecto shook her head. "We're still working on the Hudine mission. I thought we'd finally managed to corner him, but he got away." She gave a small smile and a blatantly half-hearted shrug. "Ah, well. You know what they say about tortoises and hares. What was the old aesop, again?"

"'Slow and steady wins the race?'" Tempus supplied.

"Yeah, that. _Festina lente_."

"Ha!" Blackstar exclaims, putting his hands on his hips and puffing his chest out. "That sort of strategy may work for some smaller people, but for a guy as big as myself that's too easy!"

Tempus felt a wave of apprehension wash over him, and he saw Alecto's usually soft black eyes harden into flinty circles of black ice. "Ah, yes, that is your modus operandi, is it not? Choosing missions that are _ultra vires_. "Black Star's lack of response indicated that he didn't understand what that meant. Neither did Tempus, if he was being perfectly honest with himself.

"In fact," Alecto added, venom practically dripping from her voice. "You went on such a mission yesterday, didn't you? The mob boss Don Alcapone, if I'm remembering what you said correctly." Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "How did that go?"

"Ally," Tempus said, quietly and cautiously. He could tell exactly what was going on; he was Alecto's weapons, after all, and they'd be poor partners if they weren't able to figure out the other person's emotions and the meaning behind their actions. It was clear that she was still upset about the night before, and taking her frustration out on her least favorite person in a roundabout way was probably her way of venting that frustration.

Before the words that had been spoken and the unfriendly meaning behind them could escalate into something more than just an early-morning conversation, Alecto looked down to the three teacups ahead of her. And then it was as if a supernatural force had taken hold of her, and her disposition did a complete one-eighty. "Oh!" she said gleefully, a large smile stretching across his features. "Tea's done!"

"Already?" Tempus said. He wasn't really that surprised by her shift in demeanor. Tea always had that sort of effect on Alecto.

"This tea doesn't take very long to brew," Alecto said, picking up two of the cups with a delicate hold and pushing herself to her feet. She carefully handed one of the cups to Tempus, who accepted it with a nod and a small, grateful smile, even though he honestly didn't really want any tea at the moment. She turns and holds out the other cup of tea to Tsubaki, and Tempus could practically feel the rose-haired meister's nervousness roll off of her in waves. "I made you some tea, too, Tsubaki!" Alecto said. "It's white pear! I'm, ah, sorry if it's not the greatest, I wasn't really able to prepare it with freshly-boiled water."

Tsubaki smiled as she took the tea. "Oh, thank you!" She took a sip, and her face lit up. "Oh, this is good!"

"Ah! I'm glad you like it!" Alecto said, beaming as she knelt down to pick up her cup. One look at her face and Tempus instantly felt obligated to drink the tea. She just looked so… _cute_. The smile lit up her whole face, and it was a smile he hadn't seen since they'd taken on the Hudine mission. Just looking at her being genuinely happy made Tempus feel like he had clockwork butterflies zipping around his stomach.

He took a small sip of the tea, being careful to avoid burning his tongue. Alecto had been right in her assessment of the beverage; it was a very light tea, a lot lighter than the strong aroma would indicate. The "pear" part of "white pear" was incredibly light as well, but it was most certainly there, and if Tempus was a pear sort of person, he'd probably declare it a damn good tea. As things stood, though, the only thing he could really think to say was, "This tea would taste a lot better if it were cold."

Alecto waved him off. "Tea _never_ tastes better when it's cold, silly." She was still smiling, though.

Tsubaki and Black Star, meanwhile, had turned their attention to the mission board. Tsubaki was looking over each mission carefully, the scrutiny apparent in her dark blue eyes. "I wonder if there are any good missions for us up there," she mused.

Black Star seemed to sulk a little at this, something that caused Tempus no small amount of amusement. "What are you talking about?" he said. "We already have one! We still have to take down Capone and his thugs."

"We're on a bit of a losing streak right now, Black Star," Tsubaki pointed out. Tempus thought that was a bit charitable, and glancing over at Alecto he could see that she shared a similar sentiment. "Maybe we _should_ think about taking on an easier mission."

"Yo!" Yet another familiar voice sounded out from the farther end of the hallway. The four of them turned in near unison to see meister Maka Albarn and her weapon, the alabaster-haired Soul Eater approaching.

Tempus held a great deal of respect for the two. They'd worked harder than any meister and weapon pair that he had met, and had managed to fulfill their soul quota far before anyone else. In fact, Tempus was sure that they had their eye on the witch Blair, last he'd heard.

Soul Eater was the one who'd called out as he ambled forward casually, hands stuffed in the front pocket of his jacket. "Looks like you two screwed up again last night, huh?" he said, grinning that trademark lazy grin of his with all of his sharpened teeth showing.

Tsubaki looked over at him with an expression that could best be described as "crestfallen agreement," but Black Star looked incredulous and a little bit indignant. "I don't know what you're talking about!" he declared, a self-satisfied grin appearing on his face as he high-fived Soul. "It was _awesome_! I was the biggest star in the whole room yesterday!"

"I'm sure it was a great show, Black Star," Maka said, "but shouldn't you be worrying about collecting some Kishin souls?"

Black Star almost looked genuinely surprised at that, as if the idea of doing his job as a weapon meister hadn't actually occurred to him. "Yeah! I guess I forgot that! Ha ha!" He burst into irritatingly hammy laughter.

Tempus took a risk and glanced back over at Alecto. She still had that smile on her face and was sipping her tea nonchalantly, and it was only the faintest twitch of the muscles at the corner of her eye that gave away the true emotions that lay beneath her shell. She was boiling _pissed_.

"What about you two?" Tsubaki asked of Maka and Soul. "How have you been doing lately?"

All at once, it was as if a cloud of shame and despair had fallen on the light-haired partners. "Please don't ask," Soul grumbled.

"Yeah, it's too depressing to even think about right now," Maka added."

Tempus chuckled. "I guess we've all had a bit of a rough night, eh?" He gestured to Alecto, who held up one of her bandaged hands for emphasis. "We went after Hudine last night and, well, we didn't get very far."

"Oh, ouch, that looks like it hurt," Maka said, wincing sympathetically.

Alecto shrugged. "I just want to catch the bastard at this point. Hurt palms don't mean much to me as long as he's still out there." She pouted and adjusted her grip on the teacup in her hand. "Though, I will say that it makes drinking a nice hot cup of tea _considerably_ more difficult."

"Iced tea," Tempus repeated. "It would solve all your problems."

"Iced tea is gross, Tempus."

"How can you, of all people, say that? I thought you loved all sorts of teas."

"Iced tea isn't tea. Iced tea is_ evil_."

Tempus opened his mouth to point out how there were many scenarios in which iced tea was not, in fact, evil, and was actually better than hot tea (the white pear tea, for example), but before he could say anything the school intercoms buzzed to life. _"Meisters Black Star and Tsubaki of class Crescent Moon, please report immediately to the Death Room."_ The six of them all looked up, with more than a few brows furrowing in confusion. _"I repeat, Meisters Black Star and Tsubaki…"_

"Us?" Black Star said. "What for?"

Alecto snorted. "I can think of about a hundred reasons," she muttered.

"You'd better go see why you're needed," Maka said. "You wouldn't want to keep Lord Death waiting."

Black Star seemed to contemplate for a moment, and then grinned such a grin that Tempus was worried that the cyan-haired boy's face would split right in two. "He probably just wants to congratulate me on my awesome performance last night! Come on, Tsubaki!" With that, he turned heel and strolled confidently down that hallway, in the general direction of the Death Room.

Tsubaki didn't look quite so confident. "Oh, no," she said under her breath before handing the still half-full teacup back to Alecto, who takes it with wide, bemused eyes. "Thank you for the tea, it was very nice and I'm very sorry I wasn't able to finish it, but I really should go see what Lord Death wants, goodbye!" With that, the chain scyther was chasing after her meister. "Black Star, slow down!"

Alecto still looked a little dazed. "Uh, yeah," she said. "I'll, uh… I'll just… hold this for you… I guess." She didn't really seem to know what to do with the teacup.

Tempus turned to Maka and Soul, who were looking over the mission board. "So, what _did_ happen last night that's got you two so down, anyways? Haven't you two been trying to kill the witch Blair?"

The pigtailed meister and her albino weapon let out a groan in unison. "It really is too embarrassing," Maka said.

"Well, you don't have to get into all the sordid details. Just a quick summary will do nicely."

A rather sizeable pause followed. Then…

"She was a _cat_."

Tempus blinked, the metaphorical gears in his head screeching to a halt. "Wait, what?"

"The witch Blair was a _cat_ who had a lot of magic and a human form," Maka repeated. "We ended up claiming the soul of a _cat_ and all of our souls were confiscated. We've got to start all over."

"I've never felt more uncool in my life," Soul added.

Tempus had to practically chug his tea to keep himself from bursting into laughter. "That is," he said, fighting a smile, "a horrendous tragedy… _pfft_... and you have my utmost sympathies…_ pfffha ha ha ha!_" He couldn't help it. He doubled over, the tea in his cup sloshing about as his dissolved into helpless hysterics. "I can't believe that! You really ate the soul of a cat, Soul?" He noticed Alecto edging away from him, but he was too lost in his laughter to notice why. "Did it taste like catnip? Would would catnip even_ taste_ like? Ha ha ha ha h-"

_"Maka Chop!"_

Tempus felt his heart freeze with fear a millisecond before the spine of a large and heavy book made contact with his skull swiftly and decisively. Stars exploded at the back of his eyes, and he collapsed to the floor with an equally decisive _thump._ "Where the hell do you even keep that?" he winced, raising a shaky hand to run a hand through his hair. He could feel a bump forming already. Fantastic.

Maka either didn't hear him or didn't care. "It's not funny!" she exclaimed. "Soul and I worked really hard to gather all those souls, and now we've got to start over because of some stupid cat lady who won't leave us alone!"

Tempus sighed. "Yeah, you're right. And I'm not just saying that because you hit me with a book." He got to his feet, smoothing out his goldenrod jacket and pants. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, though. You got ninety-nine souls before, you can get ninety-nine souls again." He turned to Alecto, who was staring at her tea with a blank look on her face. "You agree, right, Ally?"

She didn't respond.

"Uh, Ally? Ally!"

Alecto blinked and looked up at him. "Oh, uh, yeah, sure." She still didn't seem all that focused. "Hey, Maka, Soul? I need to talk to Tempus alone. We'll see you in class, alright?"

"Alright." Maka seemed a little confused as Alecto grabbed Tempus by the wrist and led him away from the mission board, by Alecto didn't seem to care. When they were a fair distance away from the other students, she whirled around to face Tempus, placing her olive-toned hands on his shoulders. "Tempus," she said.

"Ally," he said, baffled.

"It's about Hudine." She knelt down, placed the two teacups in her hands on the ground carefully, and stood back up, locking gazes with him. Her demeanor had done another flip, and the look in her eyes was of such determination that he felt a little intimidated. "I've been thinking… he's based himself after a performer, right?"

"Well, yes, I think we've already been over that."

"So," Alecto said, "if he's a performer, he wants to perform. He wants spectacle. He wants to savor the victory of slaying his marks in a grandiose manner. That's what he's been doing. What he did to us, last night, turning our trap into _his_? That's the sort of thing he wants. At this point the human soul is just a bonus."

Tempus thought it over. It did make sense, in a twisted sort of way. Of course, this was a twisted man they were dealing with. "Ok, yeah. What's this got to do with us? Unless you're planning on dressing us both as stage helpers, in which case I'm going to have to veto."

Alecto grinned. "Quite the opposite, in fact," she said, coal-colored eyes glinting. "Let's deny him the grand spectacle he craves."

* * *

_A/N - I've never drank tea in my life. All of what is stated here is basically just what I've read off of reviews on Adagio, which is a fun site to browse, even if I don't understand what is going on at all. It still counts as learning! I'm learning stuff!_

_While I adore Black Star's almost satirical hamminess and ego, I feel like someone like Alecto (who views her job as meister as putting her weapon's needs first, always) would probably not share my sentiment. Tempest just sort of thinks he's annoying._

_So, uh, Latin time._

_**Festina lente:** Literally means "make haste slowly," which is essentially the Latin version of "slow and steady wins the race." If you rush into things too fast and too confidently, you get careless and end up fucking it all up._

**_Ultra vires:_**_ "Beyond one's powers."_

_Chapter three will be up within the week. In the meantime, be sure to review and tell me what you think!_

_- Diana "Nocte"_


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N - Chapter three! I still have no idea what I'm doing, and I think it shows a bit at the end of this chapter. Reviews and constructive criticism would be incredibly helpful!_

_Speaking of reviews, thank you to Erza1621 and Carolinefdq for favoriting, and a very special thank you to Carolinefdq for leaving a review! When I saw that little number pop up in my stats page, I had butterflies in my stomach for the rest of the day! Thank you!_

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Three - Time Flies! The Tea-Loving Meister's Swift Entrance, Part 3**

* * *

If you were to ask people in Death City whether they prefered the sun or the moon, the almost universal answer would be "the moon," and not without good reason.

The sun was very similar to the moon in a lot of ways; it spent the day looming over the earth, with its eyes always cast down on the people below with an unsettling grin on its face. The major difference, though, was that the sun_ laughed_. It did not always laugh, but it laughed often enough and consistently enough that many people used it as a method of telling the hour. Of course, those same people would consider the laughter to be a bit unsettling. It was as if the sun was looking down and judging them, laughing at the futility of their lives and actions. At least the moon did its judging in silence.

Perhaps that was why all the wicked people did their evil at night, then.

Alecto perched precariously on top of a shingled rooftop, scanning the darkened streets below. She'd taken her large turquoise bow out of her hair and held it tightly in her hands, allowing the gentle rosy curls to flutter about her face in the wind that blustered through the air. "I don't see anyone," she said in a hushed, flat voice. "Do you?"

"Nope." Tempus was standing beside her as always, still as a board. He'd tied his long hair back into a bun instead of its usual ponytail, and he'd left his jacket at home, revealing the white button-up and bronze-brown vest underneath. He'd rolled the sleeves of the shirt up to his elbows. "You sure this is the right place? We've been patrolling this area for an hour now and we haven't seen anything or anyone."

"I'm sure. All of Hudine's victims so far have been found dead in this general area. It stands to reason that this is where he's kidnapping them as well." Alecto knelt down, leaning forward slightly as she strained to get a better view of the setting below. Death City was actually quite pretty at night, if you ignored the constant threat of someone turning evil and having their soul corrupting into a Kishin egg. But that was a threat people faced no matter where they lived.

Tempus shifted to sit beside her, bracing his feet against the shingles of the rooftop. "Maybe he just didn't feel like doing serial-killer stuff tonight?" he suggested, a rather weak grin on his face. Alecto glared at him in response, and his grin fell. "Do you really think this plan of yours is going to work? It's a long shot."

"Honestly?" Alecto didn't answer for a few seconds. "No. I don't. But even if I did know, it doesn't matter. It wouldn't change anything."

"Eh?"

"I was certain that we would catch him last night, and we didn't. My certainty about something doesn't change the odds. What does change the odds is my _effort_. If I let every doubt and worry I had affect my effort in something, I'd never get anything done. _Qui audet adipiscitur_, remember?"

"She who dares, wins. Yeah." Tempus didn't seem all that reassured. "You don't think it's going to fail, though, right? We're not running into a lose-lose scenario here?"

"I don't think we're going to fail. I hope we're going to win." Alecto yanked and twisted the ribbon in her hand, tensing under the pressure of his concerned gaze. She didn't want him to worry, and yet the words he spoke carried some significant weight. She couldn't be sure that they were going to win… did that mean she thought they were going to lose?

_Well, with that attitude, of course you're going to lose,_ she told herself. _Qui audet adipiscitur, qui audet adipiscitur_… "I'll tell you this much, though. This time, I don't intend to stop fighting until either Hudine is dead or I am."

"Oh. Uh. That's… a thing, I guess."

"Yeah."

An increasingly awkward silence passed between the two of them. Alecto turned her attention back to the road down below. She went over the details of her plan in her head, running through them with a mental fine-toothed comb for any flaws or possible holes that would lead to Hudine escaping again. As casual as she had acted about it to Black Star and Tsubaki, she had to admit that the utter failure of last night had hurt more than a little bit. She didn't want that to happen again. She had to kill him and claim his soul for Tempus.

As if on cue, the terrified scream of a young woman split the air. Alecto scrambled to her feet. "Damn!" she explained. "It's him. It has to be." She yanked Tempus up by the shoulder and shoved the ribbon into his umber-brown hands. "You know what to do, right? This all depends on your timing."

"Timing?" Tempus scoffed, smirking reassuringly down at his meister as he loosely tied the ribbon into his own hair. "Ally, you know who you're talking to, right? Timing is literally my thing. I've got this. I'm more worried about you. Can you hold out long enough?"

Alecto smirked back up at him. "I can handle anything that bastard throws on me." She reaches out and places her right hand on his chest. "Let's go. We're not letting that son of a bitch get away again! Twelve o'clock position, go!"

"Right!" Tempus shifted into his weapon form, the glove on his buckler folding snugly around her hand, underneath the sleeve of her cropped-waist jacket. The spears spun around a few times before settling into place right next to each other, in a manner that had them both pointed straight up when Alecto let her arm lay in its natural position by her side.

_Tick._

* * *

_Tock._

Hudine was standing in the middle of an empty street, a disgustingly wicked grin on his face as usual. His once-beautiful suit was filthy and torn up, the sleeves hanging in ribbons around his scrawny arms. He was standing over a young, pretty blonde woman who he'd wrapped up in his chains. She'd been the one screaming, staring up at the monster in front of her with wide, fearful gray eyes.

Alecto didn't waste any time. She stopped at the far end of the street, her feet colliding with the stone with a solid enough noise to attract the attention of both the kidnapper and the kidnapped. "Hey!" she shouted. "Remember me?"

Hudine let out a screeching cackle. "You!" he declared. "Welcome to the show! I was just about to showcase my newest trick, with the aid of my lovely assistant here!"

"I'm not your assistant, you sick fuck! Let me go!" the blonde screamed, kicking her bound feet in his general direction, to no effect. "Help!"

Alecto began to walk forward, slowly and deliberately. "You're not going to do any more tricks as long as I'm still breathing, kidnapper Hudine! In the name of the Death Weapon Meister Academy, I declare your soul to be a kishin egg and that you be destroyed!"

Hudine merely laughed in response. It was the exactly response that Alecto expected. "As long as you're breathing, eh? Well, I guess I'll just have to rip your lungs out!" He lunged forward, leaping over the chained blonde and racing towards her, swinging on of his chains in a wide arc.

_"Brace yourself!_" Tempus declared.

Alecto raised her right arm, Tempus's buckler knocking the chain aside. She hadn't strayed from her position. She_ couldn't _stray from her position.

"Pfah!" Hudine spat. "That's all you've got? No fancy teleportation shenanigans? You're just going to stand there and take it? I'll break that clock of yours like a toothpick, and then crush you like a caterpillar's head!"

"It's time desynchronization, actually. And gross." Alecto didn't budge as Hudine lashed out at her with chain after chain, merely blocking the blows.

"How _dare_ you think you can defeat the great Hudine just by standing there!" the proto-kishin roared. "You are no statue! You are a girl, a girl of flesh that can be torn and blood that can be spilled!"

The brutal, inhuman way he said it caused terror to fill Alecto's lungs, trapping her breath and tremors to run up and down her limbs. She tried to shake it off, tried to clench her teeth and take deep breaths, but to no avail.

Tempus could sense her fear, and as such she could sense his concern. _"Ally, are you all right? Maybe we should retreat, think of a plan that doesn't involve us getting barraged with chains?!"_

"No!" Alecto snapped. "We're not just going to let him get away. This ends now, one way or another!"

Hudine laughed. "I couldn't agree more!" Wrapping his elongated fingers around three of the chains wrapped around his form, he swung all of them at Alecto, the three long strips of interlocked silver nothing but a blur against the darkened sky.

_"Ally, look out!"_ Tempus shouted from the back of her mind.

Alecto moved her arm to try and block the chains, but she couldn't block all three of them at once. She blocked the one aimed for her ribcage successfully, but the uppermost one collided squarely with her skull. A stab of white-hot agony blossomed, and her vision faded and blurred into a vague mess of dark colors. Her knees buckled and she fell to her side, sprawled across the street like a limp ragdoll.

_"Ally! Ally, say something, anything!"_ She could hear Tempus's panicked voice echoing about her brain._ "Ally, say something or I'm transforming and dragging you out of here, plan be damned!"_

"_Sona si Latine loqueris._"

_"Did… did you just tell me to honk if I speak Latin?"_

"You told me to say something." With more pain and effort than she cared to admit, Alecto staggered to her feet, swaying slightly as she did. She could feel blood running down the side of her head, through the thick locks of her hair. "I'm fine. I'm fine. I've got this… _nope nope no I don't._" She crashed to the ground again. "Gi-we me a minute, I swear I'll get up."

_"Ally! That's it, we're pulling out."_

"Stop babying me! I can handle a lot more than one itty bitty industrial-strength chain to the face." Her anger at Tempus let forth a burst of adrenaline, and Alecto was able to get to her feet again. She dug her heels in, glowering in Hudine's general direction. "Do you hear me, Hudine? It'll take more than what you've got to take me down!"

"You refuse to die, then? Fine. It'd be a boring show if you fell so easily!"

_Damn it,_ Alecto thought. That was not the reaction she'd expected. She'd hoped to make him angry, make him reckless. She'd hoped to rob him of the performance he so desired, not grant it to him on a bronzed platter. This wasn't going the way she'd planned it at all.

But she didn't have any better ideas than to just let him pulverize her. If she tried to use their desynchronization to avoid his attacks, he'd just lay a similar trap like he had last time, and no doubt get away again. If she tried to attack directly, no doubt the results would be similar. She was dealing with a madman, yes, but the events of last night had showcased that he was a clever madman.

She wasn't going to allow him to escape, so she did the only thing she could think of.

She lowered her arms.

_"What the hell are you doing? You can't just stand there and let him attack you, you'll be killed in seconds."_

"I know," she growled. "Trust me, Tempus. This is still part of the plan."

Meanwhile, Hudine seemed just as confused and angry as Tempus did. "What's this? You're not going to fight?!"

Alecto raised her voice. "That's right. You want a fight? You want a 'show?' Well, you'll have to drag it out of my broken, bleeding corpse! You're so twisted you're not even worth the energy it would take to kill you!" she taunted.

It was that last sentence that finally broke through. His previous prey long forgotten, Hudine let out a scream of the purest, most unfiltered rage. "You dare?! You dare disrespect the great Hudine? You _dare?!_"

"_Ago_," Alecto said. "And you know what? For all your tricks, all your traps and clever ways of using those chains, you can't do one thing. You can't make me fight you. You can't _make_ me see you as important." She spread her arms wide, grinning. "And doesn't that just drive you _nuts_?"

Hudine lunged forward. Any semblance of stability or foresight were gone, replaced by the fury that filled his heart at the idea of not being considered important, even if only by a single person. He threw one of his chains out, lassoing it around Alecto and pulling her to the ground. "How dare you!" he said, his voice guttural as he loomed over her. "How dare! _How dare how dare how dare_!" He took one of his chains between his two hands, the polished steel glinting in the wicked light of the streetlamps. "You haven't been fighting all night! Well, you'll fight or you die!" He moved to wrap the chain around her neck.

And then everything slowed.

_Tick._ She grabbed the chain with a firm left hand. _Tock._ "The word 'fight' implies you have a chance of winning," she said. "Tempus, now!"

The street was illuminated at the buckler spear faded into a white amorphous shape and soared over Hudine's stunned form, turning human just as he made contact with the ground. _Tick._ The cyan ribbon was still in his hands, and he looped it around Hudine's ankle the same way Hudine had wrapped the chain around Alecto's neck. _Tock._ He pulled.

The kishin-souled criminal crashed to the ground, blood spewing as his lip tore open. _Tick._ Alecto removed the chain from its place around her neck and slung it around Hudine's. _Tock_. Tempus turned back into his buckler spear form, his hands spinning into their twelve-thirty position. Alecto placed a firm foot on Hudine's chest and glowered down at him, holding the chain around his neck with her left hand and pointing Tempus's minute hand spear at his face with her right.. "You're done, Hudine. Your soul is ours."

Hudine chuckled. "Ha… so I did get you to fight after all."

"No," Alecto said flatly. "I got you to lose." She stabbed him in the left shoulder, the spearhead sinking deep into his flesh. "No more traps," she said over his screams. She stabbed him in the right shoulder. "No more tricks." She aimed at his heart. "No more deaths."

She stabbed downward.

Hudine exploded into tenebrous ribbons, whirling around and dissipating into the air around them. the chains clattered to the ground with a stern finality, and in the place where the killer had once been a single soul floated upwards.

This was not the same kind of soul as a human's. There was no bright blue glow, still flickering with the sense of life despite its host having died a long time ago. This egg was a dark red, with ragged scales peppering its surfaces. It didn't "flicker" so much as "hum," and the way the soul glowed seemed… unreal. Like it shouldn't glow that way.

And that was because it shouldn't. This was a Kishin egg, the result of a human soul corrupting from evil and the excessive consumption of other human souls. Fading into his human form once more, Tempus plucked the soul from the air and looked at it with a grimace on his face. "Ugh, I hate this part. These things always taste terrible. Like how you feel at the end of a really bad day."

"That does sound pretty terrible."

"Yeah. Ah, well, it's one step closer to becoming a Death Scythe, right?" Tilting his head back, he stuffed the kishin egg into his mouth and ate it in one gulp, making as face as he swallowed. "I can't believe some weapons actually like the taste of Kishin eggs."

"Well, some weapons aren't as picky as you are," Alecto pointed out, pressing her palm against the wound on her head. It wasn't as deep or as dangerous as it had felt to be, and the flow of blood had already slowed to a crawl. It mostly just hurt like hell.

Tempus noticed her movements, and suddenly he was by her side, his gaze stern as he swept her hair to the side and examined her wound closely. "Well, um, I'm not a doctor, so you should probably see one, but I don't_ think_ it's fatal?"

"I don't need to see anyone. Every meister's taken a few blows to the head, it's not a big deal."

"It _is_ a big deal, Ally! Dr. Medusa can fix you up."

"It's late. I'll see Dr. Medusa tomorrow."

Tempus stared at her. "Promise?" he asked.

"Promise. But for now I just want to report to Lord Death, then go home and have a nice cup of tea. Or twelve."

Tempus let out a shallow laugh. "All right, fine. Deal." He placed his hands on her shoulders, locking a stern gaze with Alecto. His hair was a bit of a mess, with blonde locks hanging loose from his bun. "But I'm not making you the tea. Goodness knows I'll find some way to mess it up and then you'll just end up shoving me away so you can do it yourself, so let's just skip that whole mess, shall we?" Alecto laughed in response, and she could feel Tempus's hand's slacken in relief.

A nervous, high-pitched cough caught their attention. They turned to see the blonde-haired girl still wrapped up in the chains that Hudine had used. Her wide eyes were a little confused as her gaze darted between the two of them. "Could, ah… could one of you untie me?" she asked. "Please?"

* * *

"Forty-two, forty-two, five-sixty-four, whenever you want him, knock on Death's door," Alecto muttered, writing the numbers onto the steam-fogged glass of the window. The glass rippled with blue energy before turning completely opaque. "Lord Death, sir!" Alecto said, straightening her stance. "Meister Alecto Bellatore reporting on the matter of the kidnapper Hudine!" She ran a hand through her hair nervously, her ribbon having been returned to its rightful place and the blood having been cleaned from her carnation locks. She didn't want it to be obvious that she'd been hurt in the fight.

The window rippled again, and Alecto found herself gazing into the Death Room. For a room with such a dark name, the Death Room was actually a very bright location, with the appearance of a bright blue sky with puffy clouds that floated by. Alecto knew that this was just an illusion of the walls; if the indoor location of the Death Room didn't give that away, the seemingly floating windows certainly did.

But Alecto's real focus was on none other than Lord Death himself. A tall, thin figure cloaked in black, with a face shaped like a hyper-stylized skull, he stood in the center of the Death Room. "Ah, hello there, Meister Bellatore!" he said amicably. "How are things?"

"Thing are going well, sir!" Alecto said. "The kidnapper Hudine has been defeated and his soul claimed." She beamed. "He won't be killing anyone else, sir, belie-we… _believe_ me."

"Ah, excellent! This would be your fifteenth soul that you and Tempus have collected, yes?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Ah, good. I'd hoped you'd have progressed a little bit quicker, given your talents, but it's good to see that you were able to take down Hudine. Was that all?"

"Y-yes, sir!"

"Ah, very well, then! You take care of yourself now! And remember, I have high expectations for you!" The image in the window faded, giving way back to the immaculate glass and Alecto's transparent reflection.

Tempus ambled up to her, hands in his pockets and hair falling haphazardly over his shoulders and back. "Report go well?" he asked casually.

"Uh, yeah." Alecto was still staring at the window blankly. "Hey, Tempus. We did good tonight, right?"

Tempus stared at her. "What are you talking about? Of course we did. Hudine's dust, we saved that girl, and we're one step closer to making me a Death Scythe! The only way we could have done better is if we hadn't even been hit at all, and that's a pretty unrealistic."

"Yeah," Alecto said. "Yeah, I suppose."

_Then why do I suddenly feel like an underachiever?_

* * *

_A/N - Aaand that's the end of Alecto's introductory arc. The hilarious thing is, there were about twenty billion better plans that would've worked in killing Hudine, but who ever said Alecto was a good strategist? And yeah, that final scene isn't just fluff to wrap up the chapter. I promise there's a point to that. Promise. Pinky-swear._

_I'm actually learning a little bit of Latin while writing this. Mostly what I'm learning is that I'm really glad I've never taken any foreign languages classes, because damn this shit is complicated. Speaking of Latin!_

**_Qui audet adipiscitur:_**_ "She who dares, wins." I know the translation is stated in the context and I translated it in the first chapter, but I sort of wanted to bring a little emphasis to it because this is sort of going to be Alecto's arc phrase. I won't include it in any future notes._

_**Sona si Latine loqueris:**__ As mentioned in-story, this means "Honk if you speak Latin." I ran across this phrase during a research spree and my first thought was "I need to have that in my story I NEED TO HAVE ALECTO SAY "HONK IF YOU SPEAK LATIN" IN LATIN." So, there we are._

_**Ago:**__ In this context, it's supposed to mean "I do," as in, "I do dare." I'm not sure if I got the grammar 100% or if I used the right specific word for "to do" for this specific context (I found three words that could have all worked equally well for all I know), but I do hope that I did. Latin is hard, guys._

_I've been releasing this on an every-other-day schedule, but I don't know whether that will be consistent throughout the fic's run. Do you know how many words I've written in a single week alone? Too many. In either case, Chapter four will be up soon. In the meantime, please review and tell me what you think!_

_- Diana "Nocte"_


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N - Chapter four, chapter four! This chapter is a big shorter than the other chapters, especially compared to the powerhouse that was chapter three. Chapter five will probably be similar. This is also the fastest I have ever written and updated. I wonder if those two facts are connected. You know how we should celebrate this speedy update? With reviews! :D_

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Four - Post Tempestatem - The Mystery Behind the Pharaoh Mission? Part 1**

* * *

Alecto lay back against the stairs leading up to the Death Weapon Meister Academy, stretching her tights-clad legs and basking in the warmth given off by the cackling sun that hung over the horizon. "Mmmmm," she hummed serenely. "Hey, Tempus, I'm just going to sit out here until it's time to head to class, m'kay?"

"You're weird."

"That wasn't an answer," Alecto retorted

"Fine. I'll be inside. Come find me when you're done being lazy," Tempus teased affectionately. With the quiet shuffling of feet, Alecto heard her weapon continue on his path up to the school. Soon, his footsteps faded out of Alecto's range of hearing, and she allowed herself to relax fully, soaking in the Nevada warmth.

It had been a couple days since the two of them had taken down Hudine. Due to the blow to the head she had received that night, Doctor Medusa had told her to not take on any more missions for the next few days, and it was driving Alecto nuts. The only time she'd really been able to relax was at this point in the morning before classes started, when the sun had just made its way completely into the sky. She closed her eyes, soaking in the sensation of sunlight on her skin and the early morning wind ruffling through her hair. The faint ache in her skull and the tenseness in her muscles that had plagued her throughout the night faded, leaving behind an enjoyable serenity that her consciousness fell into like a pit filled to the brim with freshly fluffed pillows.

An odd metaphor, certainly, but Alecto was too tired to think up a better one.

The young meister wasn't certain how long she rested there… hell, it was possible that she'd dozed off completely on those steps… but she was suddenly jolted from her daze by a solid fist hitting her soundly on the head. She lurched forward, clutching her cranium. "What in the fresh _hell_, Tempus? I told you I'd be heading up when it was time to get to class!"

"Tempus?!" The voice that responded didn't belong to her weapon, and for the sharpest of seconds Alecto's blood boiled within her veins. Eyes flying open, she whirled around to glower at the quote-unquote "assassin" that had awoken her.

"_You,_" she snarled.

Black Star didn't seem to notice the ire rolling off of her in waves, and continued to talk about the _truly_ important matter at hand: himself. "How could you mistake me for Tempus? I'm like a thousand times bigger than that! I'm surprised my awesome presence didn't wake you up immediately!"

"Yeah, I'm surprised I didn't hear you coming _can I go back to sleep now I'd be perfectly happy to miss class it's not like its the first time that sort of thing would happen._"

Perhaps the blue-haired meister had selective hearing. Perhaps he was just completely unaware of anything that didn't involve the Great And Powerful Black star in some manner. Regardless, his voice barreled over her own. "However, I won't hold your mistake against you. A big guy such as me wouldn't possibly be brought down by such a tiny insult."

"That's great, really, just completely fantastic _what the hell are you doing here?_"

A kind, beautiful voice piped up behind the two of them, and Alecto looked behind her - and up a ways - to see Tsubaki standing a few steps away, a rather apologetic smile on her face. "Tempus asked us to get you. He said that you'd probably fallen asleep."

"A-ah! Tsubaki!" Alecto leapt to her feet, her face turning the same shade of pink as her hair. "_Mē miseret!_ I didn't see you there! Oh, gosh, _mē miseret!_"

"It's all right, Alecto!" Tsubaki waved away Alecto's hastened and Latin apologies. "We really should head back, though. Classes start pretty soon, and I wouldn't want to be late."

"Uh, yeah! Yeah." With an added spring in the heel of her boots, she practically danced up the stairs to join up with the chain scythe. "So, how'd things go with you and Lord Death a few days ago?" she asked. The two of them hadn't really gotten to talk since that day, due to a severe case of "chain to the head." "I've heard that you turned in a hundred Kishin eggs to him, but didn't take any for yourself."

"Yes, that's right," Tsubaki said. "Our original goal was to take down the mob boss Don Alcapone, his mob, and the witch Angela that they were tracking down."

"That's, what, a hundred and one versus you two? Those are some pretty big odds," Alecto saisaid. Stretching and brushing the dirt off of her romper, she started the long walk up the stairs alongside Tsubaki. She could see Black Star run up to roughly match pace with them, and she decided to deliberately ignore him. "What did Alcapone want with a witch?" she asked, directing her question to Tsubaki

"They wanted to kill her and take her soul," Tsubaki explained, thin ponytail swaying back and forth mesmerizingly as she walked. "With it, they would have become immensely powerful, and a real problem for the DWMA."

"Ah. So, how'd the two of you take them all out?"

"Well… we didn't. Not really."

"Eh?"

"They were already all killed off by the time we got to them," Black Star interjected loudly, apparently having decided that the focus of attention had been off of him long enough. "Instead, we had to fight this samurai guy called Mifune."

That name seemed vaguely familiar to Alecto. Had she heard it in a story somewhere? "Mifune?"

"Yeah," Black Star seemed to grow more belligerent the more the topic lingered on this "Mifune" guy.

"So, uh… did you kill him?"

"Nah. Some dumb samurai looking after a bratty kid? He wasn't worth my time."

"Uh-huh." Something told Alecto that that wasn't all there was to it. Then the gears clicked together in her head, and she stopped dead in her tracks. "Wait a minute. A bratty kid? You said that Alcapone was going after a witch for her soul. Where do a samurai and a kid come into play?"

"The witch Angela was a little girl," Tsubaki said.

"A what?" Alecto had never seen a witch in person before; the closest she'd gotten to one of them was looking at the pictures in library books, and none of those pictures had given the impression that witches could be_ children_. She supposed it did made sense. It wasn't as if witches just sprung out of the ground fully grown, pointy hat and all.

At least Alecto _hoped_ they didn't.

"Okay," she said. "You didn't kill the witch, I assume. I can see that." Black Star was as arrogant as they came and kind of terrible at grasping the concepts of "stealth" and "not announcing your presence to everyone within a fifty mile radius," but he wasn't a kid-killer. "But even still, what about the souls? The two of you haven't collected _any_ so far. Surely the thought of taking at least a few crossed your minds."

"Nah!" Black Star said. "After all, I wasn't the one who killed them. A guy like me doesn't need someone else to kill his targets for him."

"Ah, I see." Alecto still had the feeling that she wasn't getting the whole story, but when it boiled down to it, the only way she could possibly get the whole story was if she went back in time and watched the events unfold herself. Her curiosity didn't stretch far enough for her to try ripping apart the fabric of time and haphazardly rearranging it.

After a brief moment of silence, Tsubaki spoke. "What about you, Alecto? How have you been, lately?"

"Well, the good news is that I should be able to start doing missions again in a couple days. The bad news is that I don't think I can take another minute of this. I've just felt so coop up these past few days, and I need to _do_ something. At this point it doesn't even need to be Kishin-hunting, I'll take what I can get. I've rearranged all of the furniture in my apartment three times now out of sheer boredom. Well, most of the furniture. I'm pretty sure Tempus would never forgive me if I tampered with his bookshelves." Shouldering open the door to the school, Alecto stood to the side, keeping the door open while Tsubaki and Black Star entered the school. "Speaking of _Tempus_, did you know he's told me that if I don't 'take it easy,' he'll take all my tea and hide it where I could never find it? _Scelerātum_, I told him, but he didn't listen! And another thing, I'm pretty sure there have been mice scurrying about in my walls, I swear that hole in the wall wasn't there when we first moved i-"

Alecto's tirade screeched to halt as she realized that Tsubaki was giving her a weird look. Her cheeks flushed, and she managed to stammer out a confused, "W-what are you looking at me like for?"

Tsubaki gave her a gentle smile in return. "You really _do_ need to get out and do something, don't you?"

Alecto's cheeks turned even redder. "Aw, gee, is it that ob-wious? Uh,_ obvious._"

"A little."

"Ah."

The next few minutes were spent in a rather awkward silence as the three of them made their way through the halls of the DWMA. Alecto's focus flitted away from her surroundings and towards more important matters._ I wonder… if I took on a mission and Tempus hid my tea, would I be able to find it? I've rearranged the furniture enough times, I know every nook and cranny our home has. Oh, but what if he hides all of it somewhere outside the apartment? What if he hides it somewhere in the school? I wouldn't be able to find it then. Well, he wouldn't be able to hide it somewhere where I'm restricted from entering, because we're both restricted from the same places… Wait, what if I hid the tea before he could?_

It wasn't long before Alecto was lost deep within her thoughts, and she barely noticed that the general hustle and bustle levels around her had increased until Tsubaki asked, "What's going on there?"

Pulling herself away from her plans of tea-based psychological warfare, Alecto focused on the small crowd of students that had gathered around the mission board, murmuring amongst themselves.

"...can't believe someone actually took it…"

"Would've heard…"

"S'posed to be a three-star mission, isn't it…?"

Amidst the crowd, Alecto could see three familiar faces; Maka and Soul Eater, who were standing closest to the mission board, and Tempus, whose considerable height made him easier to spot. Alecto furrowed her brow in confusion. There were always a couple meisters around the mission board looking for new souls to hunt, sure, but never this many. And what was Tempus doing there if the two of them weren't taking on new missions?

"Hey! Soul, Maka!" Black Star called out to the meister and weapon duo. who turned to look over at the three of them as they approached. Tempus glanced over as well, and silently moved to stand by Alecto, giving her a pointed _how-was-your-nap_ look. Alecto shot him a _very-good-what-is-happening_ look. He gave a half-interested shrug.

"Oh, hey, guys! Good morning!" Maka said, a rather friendly smile on her face as was usual this early in the morning. Maka was much more of a morning person than a lot of people Alecto knew, including herself.

"_Salvē_," Alecto responded, swinging her arms behind her back and clasping her fingers together. She glanced around, trying to pick out the people she recognized amidst the crowd. Kim Dhiel, Kilik Lunge, that one doormat kid everyone picked on… _Hero? I think that's his name,_ she thought. She didn't really know any of them that well, as she only really spoke with Tsubaki and Maka on a quasi-regular basis. And even her relationship with Maka was more of a "friend of a friend" situation than an actual friendship. The thought soured Alecto's mood slightly, and she turned her attention back to the budding conversation at hand.

"'Morning, Maka! Soul!" Tsubaki said cheerfully as Black Star and Soul high fived each other. "What happened? Why is everyone down here?"

Soul raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? You mean you haven't heard yet? It's kind of a hot topic around here right now."

Black Star laughed his usual, ham-filled laugh that wouldn't be out of place on a theater stage. Alecto had to give the boy credit, he did know how to project his voice. "Hah hah hah hah! Oh, I get it! Everyone's scared of what a big star I'm becoming, huh!"

Scarlet irises rolled as Soul Eater shook his head slightly. "Not quite, Black Star. It has nothing to do with you."

"Huh?"

"Check it out," Tempus piped up, nodding to the mission board. "Somebody actually took on the Pyramid of Anubis mission."

Alecto's curiosity was piqued, and she examined the mission board closely. "The Pyramid of Anubis? You mean the three-star witch mission in Egypt?" Her coal-black gaze scanned over the mission board as she stood on tiptoe to try and get a better view.

"Do you know any other Pyramid of Anubis?" Soul replied dryly, pointing the the mission card in question. Sure enough, there was the label that declared the mission to be claimed. "So?" he said. "What do you guys think? Anyone else wanna go find out who took on the big mission?"

"Yeah, of course I do!" Black Star declared. "Whoever this guy is, he's a real show-off! He actually thinks he can build a bigger than mine!" His expression was akin to that of an enraged bull, and Alecto considered finding a piece of red cloth to wave in front of him just to see what would happen.

Beside her, Tempus let out a snort. "Why, hello, Mr. Pot, that's a lovely shade of black you're wearing," he muttered, quietly enough so that only Alecto could really hear him.

"Why thank you, Mr. Kettle," she replied in turn, taking satisfaction in the way Tempus clearly fought to contain a smirk. Raising her voice, she cleared her throat slightly. "Actually, I'd like to figure out who this mysterious mission-nabber is. They must be pretty tough if they were approved to take on a three-star mission."

Soul Eater's face fell into a smirk so casually that Alecto had to presume at this point that it was his default facial expression. "'Kay, then let's get going."

With equally mighty shouts, the two boys barrelled down the hallway. "H-hey, wait up!" Alecto shouted, chasing after them. She nudged at her soul wavelength, willing time to desynchronize slightly as she ran, giving her a bit of an edge on speed. _Tick tock tick tock tick tock_. The ticking was a lot fainter when she did this without Tempus, to the point where she often wondered if her subconscious was merely summoning it up. But it was there, signifying the steady desynchronization and resynchronization of her little bubble of her little bubble of time with the rest of the world.

The desynchronization itself wasn't as powerful without Tempus by her side either, but it was strong enough where it didn't take long before she caught up with Soul and Blackstar, and the three of them raced off in search of answers.

* * *

"Hey, wait!" Maka called out, reaching out an arm towards the three would-be sleuths. "Come back, you three!" But they were already gone, running and shouting down the long, high-ceilinged hallway. "Gah, they're going to be late for class!"

"Somehow," Tempus sighed, "I don't think it will bother them that much."

* * *

_A/N - Before I start with the Latin, let me state three things._

_First is that I dread writing Black Star. Not out of any dislike of the character (on the contrary, I enjoy every time he's on screen), but because he's just so hard to write. He's a very specific level of hammy, over-the-top, and self-centered. If I write him as too hammy and egotistical, he becomes a douchey caricature. If I don't write him hammy enough, well what's even the point of writing Black Star? The range of true Black Star-dom is a small range that I constantly fear I'll fall out of when writing._

_Second is that Alecto has a total girl crush on Tsubaki. I wanted to state that in the notes for the second chapter, but I forgot, so I'm putting it here. Can you blame her? Tsubaki is amazing._

_Third, on my profile I've posted links outfit references for Tempus and Alecto that I made with various dress up dolls from the internet, because I'm aware I'm kind of terrible at describing clothes.  
_

_On to the Latin!_

_**Mē miseret:** Means "I'm sorry." I'm not sure if this is the correct form of "I'm sorry" (the toughest thing about forgein languages is learning which form of something would be most appropriate for with context), but I'm hoping it did. My research into the wonderful world of a dead language will pay off someday!**  
**_

_**Scelerātum:** Ah, now here's a tricky one. If what I've learned is correct, than literally, it means "criminal" in an adjective manner. But the base word that it stems from is also used to refer to generally heinous, immoral, and unethical acts. In this context, Alecto is pretty much saying "hiding my tea is an act of unquestionable wickedness." Tea is a big fucking deal._

___**Salvē:** In this context, it means "good morning." In other contexts, it could mean "good evening," or "welcome." Damn you, Latin._

___Chapter five will probably be here by Thursday or Friday at the latest. Or maybe tomorrow. We just don't know. (Probably Thursday-ish.) In the meantime, please leave a review and tell me what you think!_

___- Diana "Nocte."_


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N - Oh, wow, I am just churning these out, aren't I? I think I've submitted 18k words in about the span of a week. Seriously, someone stop me. Actually, don't stop me at all, this is fun. You know what you should do? Leave me reviews._

_Speaking of reviews, thank you to TM58 and Carolinefdq for reviewing! At TM58's request, I've provided a link to a visual reference for Tempus's weapon form on my profile. I do apologize for the poor quality of the artwork. The greatest artist of our generation, I am not._

_To Carolinefdq, I want to say that I really appreciate the review, and I'm relieved to know that I haven't botched up the canon characters too badly!_

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Five - Post Tempestatem - The Mystery Behind the Pharaoh Mission? Part 2**

* * *

Tempus had never heard two people sigh in sync before.

Burnished gold eyes flitted over to look at the two girls sitting together by the nearby desk. When placed side by side, their differences became very apparent; the tall and statuesque Tsubaki's long, jet-black hair tied into a single ponytail and gentle dark blue eyes were heavily contrasted against the rather short and thin Maka's light-brown twin pigtails and eyes that were a cat's-eye-green and held a permanently faded and unfocused look to them - probably a result of Maka's ability to see souls, Tempus figured.

They dressed differently, too; Maka wore a traditional DWMA uniform, while Tsubaki wore a long, sleeveless beige dress and a dark scarf. She also wore a stocking on one leg but not the other, which was something that Tempus was always curious about but could never bring himself to ask. (Seriously, how do you say to someone "Hey, I've spent an inappropriate time staring at your legs and noticed that your only wear a stocking on one leg, why is that?")

And yet, for all their physical differences, the two of them had identical expressions of resigned weariness, and Tempus could bet every book in his collection that he knew exactly why they looked that way.

With a voice as weary as her expression, Maka spoke, confirming his suspicions. "Where do you suppose those idiots have run off to now?" she asked, quietly enough where the teacher wouldn't notice.

"Ah, they're not idiots," Tempus countered just as quietly, leaning back and propping his feet up on his desk. "Well, okay, Black Star's not exactly a tactical mastermind. And Soul Eater can be kind of ridiculous with his cool guy schtick. And Alecto's 'plan' for defeating Hudine pretty much guaranteed that she'd sustain cranial trauma of some sort. Okay, you know one, point withdrawn. As for where they currently are, they're _probably_ still within the school grounds. Probably. Though I suppose that doesn't really narrow it down." The DWMA was a pretty big place.

Maka let out a huff. "I can't believe that they would just run off like that!"

"I can," Tempus said.

"It doesn't even really matter who took the Pyramid of Anubis mission, does it? Not enough to skip class over it."

"Aw, come on, Albarn," Tempus said, sweeping his bangs away from his eyes so that he could get a better look at the meister. "You can't tell me you're not a little curious." He certainly was. Three-star missions were incredibly dangerous, and were limited to only the most skilled of meisters, usually teachers and other staff at the academy. But there wasn't any news about any teacher taking the mission, which there should have been if that was the case. And Tempus couldn't name a single three-star meister who was a student. So that ruled those possibilities out.

Tsubaki spoke up, echoing Tempus's thoughts. "It is pretty strange… only three-star meisters are allowed to take that sort of mission. Unless there was some sort of mistake?"

"What, you mean like someone accidentally let a lower-ranking meister take the mission?" Maka asked. "I don't think so. They're pretty strict about that sort of thing."

"Yeah." Tempus leaned back further, balancing his chair precariously on its back legs. "I've got a theory on who it is."

"Oh?" Tsubaki said.

"Yep! You know that one kid who became a Death Scythe all on his own at age thirteen, without the help of a Meister? The one put in charge of the DWMA's European division? The one who's pretty much a role model to every weapon out there? Hm, what was his name… Jason? No, that's not it, that's a terrible name…uh..."

"Justin Law?" Maka supplied.

"Yeah, that kid. I think he's the one who took on the mission."

"It couldn't be him, though," the young meister pointed out, leaning. "If he's the head of the European division, he's probably got work of his own to handle. And if he'd come to the DWMA, we'd probably have heard about it."

Tempus scowled. "You and your logic. I never said it was a foolproof theory. I just think it'd be cool, that's all."

From the front of the class, the teacher spoke directly to Tempus. "Feet on the floor, Mister Giles. And I'll remind you to stop distracting Miss Albarn and Miss Nakatsukasa."

Resisting the urge to point out that "Miss Albarn" had been the one to initiate the hushed discussion in the first place, Tempus swept his feet off the desk and back onto the floor, allowing his chair to fall back on all floor with a loud clack. He leaned forward and folded his arms across the desk, pretending to be very interested in the discussion at hand. But his attention was still focused elsewhere.

He was curious as to the whereabout of Alecto, and by extension Soul and Black Star. He hadn't seen hide nor hair of them since they had run off in search of answers. While he wasn't really concerned about her - she wasn't the greatest combatant, but her limited desynchronization abilities would probably grant her enough of an edge to keep herself too far out of sticky situations - he'd at least like to have some idea of where his meister was. In case some wicked force ever came crashing through the roof or something.

Okay, granted, that was unlikely, but he'd like to be prepare just in case.

Tempus was also insatiably curious about the Pharaoh mission, to the point where he was starting to regret not skipping class along with the other three. He still wanted to believe his "Justin Law" theory, because frankly he'd love to one day meet the legendary weapon that had fulfilled his quota and became a death scythe without the aid of a meister, but the more he went over Maka's logic in his head, the more he had to admit that it was pretty unlikely. He still wanted it to be correct, though.

He wondered if the other three were having more success solving this little puzzle.

* * *

_"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"_

The determined screams of the two spiky-haired boys echoed within the high, arched ceilings and came crashing back down to the ears of anyone who was unlucky enough to still be in the hallways when they came barrelling through. A few feet behind Black Star and Soul ran Alecto, who was struggling to keep up even with her time desynchronization powers. _Tick tock tick tock._

Despite all appearances to the contrary, Alecto wasn't actually that fast of a runner. Any apparent "speed" of hers was merely a result of the temporal desynchronization her soul wavelength could create. And, as another result of said desynchronization, Alecto had been running for longer. It didn't help that the desynchronization was as powerful or as long-lasting without Tempus's soul wavelength aiding hers. As such, the muscles in her legs burned as she ran, fighting to keep herself from falling behind.

_Tick tock_. "Could you two -"_ Tick tock._ "- possibly do me a favor and -" _Tick tock._ "- slow down?" she panted, her throat aching as she struggled to form the words._ And I thought running the track was painful,_ she thought. At least with track she could run at her own pace. With these two it was like trying to race against sunlight. _Tick tock tick tock tick tock_.

Luckily, she didn't have to run for much longer. With the turn of a corner, the towering door to the Death Room came into view. The stylized skull emblazoned upon the upper third of the door regarded the sprinting teenagers with a blank expression. Mercifully, Soul Eater and Black Star finally stopped just in front of the door, and Alecto allowed herself to stop, stumbling to her knees as her legs finally gave out. Gasping for air, she stopped her desynchronization, her heart pounding rhythmically in her chest as she caught her breath. She was beginning to regret not staying with Tempus, Tsubaki and Maka.

While she was busy trying to bring her heart rate down to a manageable level, Soul and Black Star grabbed the knocker in unison and slammed it against the metal door once, twice, thrice.

A few seconds went by with no response. They tried again, once, twice, thrice. Still nothing.

"Maybe he's out," Alecto joked, still kneeling on the floor. It was an impossibility, of course; it was common knowledge that Lord Death never left the DWMA. Hell, most of the time, he never even left the Death Room.

Soul Eater let out a _tch_ as he stepped back. "So much for 'whenever you want him, just knock on Death's door,'" he said. "Do you think he can't hear us, or is he just ignoring us?"

"What's the point of having a knocker on your big giant if you can't hear it? Those things are supposed to amplify the sound of someone's knock, aren't they?" Alecto pointed out, finally standing up. "He's probably busy being, you know, Lord Death, along with whatever responsibilities that entails. Besides, we're technically not even supposed to be here right now. We should be in classes, remember?"

"Maybe he just doesn't realize who's knocking!" Blackstar suggested loudly, because Blackstar did everything loudly. "I'm sure that he'll open right up when he realizes that I'm here!" He took a deep breath, and started shouting. "HEY, LORD DEATH! IT'S ME, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL_ BLACK STAR!_ OPEN UP!"

Nothing. In fact, the door looked even more solidly closed than before, if such a thing were possible.

"Well, this is a dead end," Soul said. "Anyone have any ideas?"

A few moments passed before the metaphorical light bulb flickered to life, illuminating an idea that had bloomed in Alecto's thoughts. "What about the Death Scythe?" she suggested. "If he's on school grounds, we should be able to ask, right? And if anyone would know about who got what mission, it's one of Lord Death's personal weapons." The key word there was_ if_. The Death Scythe that resided at the DWMA was notorious for spending his days and nights at Chupa Cabra's, the local cabaret.

Soul and Black star shot each other a mutual look of determination. Then, before Alecto really had the time to process the situation, they were off again, barreling past her and down the hall, screaming all the way.

"Oh, come on," she moaned, staggering to her feet. "Couldn't we at least take a two-minute break? No?" Letting out a sigh of exhaustion, she started running. _Tick tock tick tock._

* * *

Spirit Albarn, the Death Scythe that resided within Death City, was absolutely no help whatsoever. The crimson-haired man was within the school grounds instead of the cabaret, but he'd completely brushed off their questions, essentially telling them to get lost. Though, he did add that if Soul messed with "his Maka" there would be seven different kinds of hell to pay.

So, the three students took their question to the person who they probably should have taken their question to in the first place; the receptionist. _Tick tock._ "You know," Alecto wheezed as she ran, her accent slipping back into its natural state as she focused less on her words and more on where her feet were landing. "we probably... should hawe done this... in the first place." _Tick._ She was surprised that the muscles in her legs hadn't completely turned to jelly. Perhaps all those extra laps she and Tempus had to run when they had been caught cheating with their join ability had paid off in the long run. _Tock._

"Yeah," Soul said. "But it's no use thinking about it now." Despite the steadiness of his words, she could tell that he was starting to wear himself out as well. Hell, even the still-screaming Black Star was starting to slow a bit, though not as much. The white-haired boy grinned, baring each of his sharp, sharp teeth. "After all, it's totally not cool to cry over spilled milk."

Alecto would have scoffed if she had the breath to spare. "Yeah…" she said between gasps, "but all those tears shed ower the milk will remind us not to spill it next time or… something. Man, prowerbs are _so_ much easier when they're in Latin."

"You're doing that weird thing with your v's again," Soul pointed out as he skidded to a halt at the front of the reception desk alongside Black Star. Alecto was far less graceful, pretty much just falling over against the ivory-colored wall with a solid _thump._

The mission receptionist, a round-faced woman with pink cheeks and curly blonde hair, looked startled for a second before her face fell back into its typical friendly smile. "Shouldn't you three be in class?" she asked. "I know the three of you don't have any missions. Especially you, Miss Bellatore, I know you're still under doctor's orders," she added, looking pointedly at Alecto, whose only response was an exhausted "Phrrh."

Soul placed his hands on the reception ledge to brace himself while he caught his breath. "We want to know who took on the Pyramid of Anubis mission," Soul said.

The receptionist immediately shook her head. "No can do, dearie. That's a three-star mission. I'm not allowed to give information about it to one-star meisters like you three. Now, back off to class for you!"

"Wait!" Black Star exclaimed, and with a flourish he pulled out a piece of paper from…_ somewhere._ Maybe the same magic dimension that Maka kept that book of hers. "I'll totally give you my autograph if you tell us about the Anubis mission!" he offered, giving a thumbs up and a grin as he proffered the sheet of paper that no doubt had his signature on it.

If it was possible for a person to look more unimpressed than the receptionist did in the split second after Black Star made his offer, Alecto hadn't know of it. However, the expression only lasted for a few seconds before her polite smile was back; this woman had honed the control of her facial muscles to an art form, it seemed. "Sorry, young man, but rules are rules! Only three-star meisters are allowed to know the details of this mission."

"So we need to find a three-star meister, then!" Black Star said.

"Well, no," the receptionist replied. "What you need to do is head back to class."

"There's gotta be some teacher who's willing to tell us," Soul pointed out, the two boys completely ignoring the receptionist.

"You're all going to end up getting in trouble…"

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Black Star demanded. "Let's go!"

The two boys started running again, their screams ringing in Alecto's ears. As the distance between her and them increased, the receptionist turned to her, raising a blonde brow in an_ are-you-going-to-follow-them_ manner."Give me a second, I'm sure I'll catch up to them," Alecto said in response, clutching her chest and taking deep breaths. "At this rate, my lungs are going to implode before I even get any answers."

"Well, you take care of yourself, dearie. And do me a favor and make sure that you three get to classes, all right? You lot are mischief makers as it is, you don't need to be running about in halls during class hours."

"Y-yeah," Alecto said. Taking a deep breath, she ran a hand through her hair, yanking out the ribbon that had come loose and re-tying it. She knew that Tempus was probably sitting in class mulling over the enigma in his head, combing through every possibility and putting together the most logical theory he could.

* * *

_ Please be Justin Law, please be Justin Law, I don't care how unlikely it is, please be Justin Law…_

* * *

Yes, that was almost certainly what he was doing. Alect only hoped he was having better success solving this little puzzle than they were.

Despite the fact that she had followed and caught up with Black Star and Soul as soon as she'd caught her breath (and it was a little easier to catch up this time, as they were starting to get exhausted too), Alecto hadn't actually expected to run into a teacher or other three-star meister. So she was a little bit surprised when the three of them ran into Sid Barett.

Well, it was less "ran into" and more "practically crash into the landing just above him" The dark-skinned, cornrow-haired man turned around to face the trio, who were all pretty much worn out by that point. Soul was practically leaning on Black Star for support, and Alecto had pretty much just given up at this point and was just sprawled on the floor wheezing, her hair a complete mess.

Sid stared at the three of them in confusion, his brow furrowing in confusion underneath his headband. "What are you three doing here?" he asked. "The bell rang a while ago, classes have already started.

"What are _we_ doing? What about you? You're a teacher, right? Shouldn't you be at class, too?" He spoke to Sid as if the older man were a family member and not an instructor.

"I have other things to take care of right now," Sid said, smirking ever so slightly. "I'm a teacher and a busy man. You all should move along." He turned his back

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Alecto said from the floor. "We didn't go dashing about the entire school just for the heck of it. At least I didn't. We're most certainly here for a reason."

"Yeah," Soul said. "We'll go, but before we get going, there's something we need you to tell us about first."

"We wanna know about the Pyramid of Anubis," Black Star added. "Who signed up to take the mission?"

"Ah," Sid said knowingly. "That mission wasn't taken by a student from our school. It's much too difficult for one of you." The way he said it would have made Alecto feel pretty insulted, if she didn't happen to agree with him. She hadn't figured the mystery person to be a student, anyway.

"If not one of us, then who took it?" Black Star asked.

"It was taken," Sid explained, "by Lord Death's son."

_Lord Death's what now. "Quid?!"_ Alecto exclaimed. She'd never heard anything about any offspring of Lord Death's. Trying to visualize that only brought to mind mental images of a smaller version of Lord Death.

"Lord Death has a _son?_" Black Star exclaimed, clearly as confused as she was.

"Well, I'll be damned," Soul said. "Really?"

"Yes, really." Sid turned to face them again. "I'm not a man to tell a lie. He's a Grim Reaper, just like his father. His name is Death the Kid."

_A real crowning achievement in name-based originality, to be sure,_ Alecto thought, her internal words laced with sarcasm. Despite the answers Sid had just imparted, she found that her curiosity had only been further piqued. She wanted to know more about this "Death the Kid" fellow. As a Grim Reaper, it was very unlikely that he needed to collect Kishin eggs himself, so why'd he take the mission?

"That's all I've got to tell you. You really should be heading back to classes," Sid said.

"Yeah, we will. Thanks," Soul said. Alecto didn't move as she watched Black Star and Soul head back up the stairs to the floor that class Crescent Moon was located. She would get up in a minute, but right now she was just going to let her heart rate return back to where it was supposed to be. Right now she was pretty sure that it was going fast enough to match tempo with _Ride of the Valkyries._

After a few seconds, she heard Sid's voice again. "You need to work on your cardio."

"Please no."

"I'll talk to Nygus and see if we can have extra laps added to your P.E routine."

Alecto groaned.

* * *

_A/N - And now what have the answer to the greatest mystery of them all: part of Tempus's real name. Wait, what do you mean that wasn't the great mystery? __Ah, well. Yeah, Tempus's last name is Giles. What's his first name? Well, it certainly isn't fucking "Tempus," that's for sure._

_Fun little anecdote: I was watching episode three for about the hundred thousandth time to get the dialogue for this chapter when my sister (who was watching with me) suddenly turned to me and said "That patch on Soul's headband says 'Soul.'" My response was, "Uh, yeah, that's his name." Then, she got really seriously, and in a hushed voice said "It's a soul patch."_

_It's been five hours. I'm still mad about that pun._

_So, Latin!_

**___Quid:_**___ Means "What." That's it, that's the Latin lesson for today._

___At the rate I'm going, next chapter will probably be posted tomorrow. I would not be surprised if that were actually the case. While I'm writing that chapter, why don't you favorite and leave a review? That would be super awesome!_

___- Diana "Nocte"_


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N - And we've breached the 20K word mark! We haven't even reached episode 4 chronologically. Well, I promise that there's a point to what I write and that I try to keep the pointless padding fluff to an absolute minimum. Review and let me know how well I succeed in that regard!_

_While we're on the subject of reviews, a very merry thank you to__ Superhero17 for the sweet review! I'm really happy that you like my story so much! :D_

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Six - Post Tempestatem - The Rescued Citizen's Caramel Chip Cookies**

* * *

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm still stuck on this. Lord Death… has a _son?_"

Alecto peeled her gaze away from the kettle heating up on the stovetop and turned to face Tempus, who was sitting at the kitchen table with an expression of utter bemusement on his face. "That's what Sid said," she affirmed. "And it's not like there was any reason for him to lie to us or anything."

"Well, yes, I know, but… It's still weird, you know? I can't imagine Lord Death as a dad." Tempus asked, running his hands through his hair. He'd pulled it loose from its usual ponytail, allowing it to drape over his shoulders. "Does this mean that there's a Lady Death out there that we don't know about?"

"I don't know. Probably not." Alecto drummed her fingers against the kitchen counter. "Sid didn't exactly go into detail. He just told us that Lord Death's son, assigned me extra laps in P.E., and left."

"Well, you could certainly use the cardio," Tempus remarked. He shrugged casually when Alecto glared at him. "What? You've got the worst cardio in Crescent Moon, everyone knows that." Alecto didn't let up with the glaring, and Tempus seemed to decide that it was time to change the subject. "So, what do you think this 'Death the Kid' fellow is like?"

"Not sure," Alecto said. "But apparently he's a Grim Reaper like Lord Death is, and he's got to be pretty talented if he's taking on three-star missions."

"Yeah, I was way off with my theories about that."

"You were hoping for Justin Law, weren't you."

"...A little bit. Justin Law is just a really big inspiration, you know? He's like, a legend! He's my role model."

"You're such a fanboy, Tempus." Alecto turned back to the tea kettle.

"Oh, don't act like you don't have a role model."

Alecto's thoughts flitted to Tsubaki and Maka momentarily, but she quickly derailed that train of thought before it even left the station. "Does tea count as a role model?" she joked, a wry smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

"No."

"_Vae!_" Alecto's coy smile turned into a full blown grin, a grin that she was glad to see Tempus return. "Tea jokes and blatant fanboyism notwithstanding, I don't really have any idea about Lord Death's son. I haven't really given the matter much thought beyond the initial shock of 'Lord Death has a kid.'"

Now that said initial shock had long since worn off, Alecto tried to imagine what a son of Lord Death would theoretically look like. He was probably a few years older than she or tempus was, if he was taking on missions like the Pyramid of Anubis. She imagined that he was taller, too; Lord Death was incredibly tall, so it stood to reason that his son would be, too. Well put together, obviously; the notion of a Grim Reaper dressing like, say, her or Soul was bizarre enough to practically short-circuit her brain. Maybe he wore a cloak similar to Lord Death's?

_Fweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet._

Alecto was jolted away her thoughts and back into the real world by the shrill whistle of her tea kettle. Swiping the garish checkered pot holder off of the marbled kitchen counter to protect her hand, Alecto carefully moved the kettle off of the burner. "Do you think he acts anything like Lord Death?"

"Hm, maybe? I mean, they've probably got to share at least a couple traits. Nature and nurture and all that." Tempus suddenly froze in his seats, his eyes as round as coins and the blood draining from his face. "If he does the Reaper Chop too I quit."

"Quit what?"

_"Everything."_

Alecto snorted as she turn the stove off with careful fingers on the heat dial and a practiced flick of the wrist. "Somehow I don't think that's going to be necessary. It's not like we're ever going to meet him or anything." Pushing herself up onto her tiptoes, she opened one of the cabinets and pulled down a pair of teacups. "What kind of tea do you want?"

Tempus shrugged. "The usual."

"Okay." Alecto plucked two teabags out of two separate boxes; one was Tempus's favorite, a black tea with a rich almond flavor blended into it, while the other Alecto had chosen at random for herself. She checked the bag. Apricot Green. She'd have to wait for the water to cool a bit before preparing hers, then.

She began to pour the water into the tea cups when there was a sudden knock on the door. "You invite someone over?" she asked, putting the kettle back down.

"No. You?"

"No."

The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds before Tempus stood up, beginning to switch into his weapon forward before Alecto shook her head at him. "A Kishin's not going to knock politely on our front door, Tempus."

"The first thing they taught us was to be alert, Ally. Who'd be knocking on our door this late at night?" Tempus pointed out. "I don't know if you've noticed, but we're not exactly social butterflies."

"Believe me, I've noticed," Alecto said, her voice going flat. She didn't need him to remind her that she could count the number of friends she had on one hand. "Look, I'm going to go see who it is. If they want to devour our soul, I'll desynchronize time long enough to get to you and then we can kick their ass, okay?"

"Okay… but if it's a door-to-door salesman, I fully reserve the right to stab him," Tempus growled, crossing his arms over his chest in an irate manner.

"Duly noted," Alecto said, though honestly she didn't think that Death City even _had_ door-to-door salesmen. She approached the door, placing a wary hand on the door. "Who is it?" she called out, more for Tempus's sake than her own.

There was a short silence, and Alecto was considering heading back to the kitchen when suddenly the nervousness-laced voice of what sounded like a young woman piped up from the outside. "Um, my name is Nadia Chamomile. You saved me from that monster a few nights ago."

Alecto let out a sigh of relief and opened the door. Sure enough, the blonde-haired, gray-eyed girl that they had rescued from Hudine was standing there in an oversized denim jacket and a pair of loose-fitting khaki pants. She was holding an aluminum full of cookies in her hands and had a nervous smile on her face. "I wanted to say thank you," she said, "and then I realized I also wanted to bake something really badly, I so figured I'd kill two birds with one stone." She held out the tin awkwardly. "What I'm saying is, I baked you some 'thanks for saving my hide' cookies."

"Cookies?" Alecto nearly jumped out of her skin as Tempus spoke up from right behind him. She shot him a dirty look, but his focus was on the container of confections. "You… brought cookies?"

The girl nodded. "They're caramel chip cookies," she said, "modified from a recipe of my dad's." She shook the tin once. "I like to think they're pretty good."

Tempus reached over Alecto's shoulder and plucked a cookie from the tin. As he bit into it, the girl continued. "I was actually wondering if I could come in for a bit. It's a pretty long walk from my apartment to yours, and I was hoping to rest my feet out." She gestured to her feet, which were clad in black boots that had a fairly high heel to them. "As it turns out, these boots were not in fact made for walking.

"Uh, I don't see why…" Alecto paused, realizing something. "Wait, how'd you find out where I lived?"

"Oh, I asked around a bit. I didn't know your name, so I just asked people if they knew anything about the meister with the long pink hair and the Italian accent. At least, I assumed it's Italian, it sounds a bit like an Italian accent. Was I wrong?"

"Latin, apparently. You asked around for me?" Alecto was teetering on the edge between "confused and a little bit flattered" and "rightfully creeped out." "To bring us thank-you cookies?"

The girl nodded, a sheepish grin spreading across her face. "I know it sounds a little bit creepy, but I swear that my intentions are one hundred percent pure and honest. Pinky promise. I was just really grateful and I thought you were really cool and I wanted to say hi and thanks."

_Really cool? Me?_ Alecto fell off the edge and landed straight into "confused and flattered." "W-well," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I can't distrust a pinky promise, can I? I don't see any reason why you can't come in." She glanced over her shoulder. "What do you think, Tempus?"

The boy seemed to be in some sort of trance, staring down at the half-eaten cookie in his hand with a reverent expression. "These cookies are amazing," he whispered.

"I think that's a 'yes.' Come on in." Alecto moved to the side, opening the door wider to allow the girl to walk in. "You said your name was Nadia, right?"

"Yup! Nadia Chamomile, age sixteen!" the girl confirmed cheerfully. She shook the tin of cookies. "Is there anywhere you want me to put these, or…?"

"The kitchen table's good. I'm actually preparing some tea, I'll get you down a cup." Alecto led Nadia into the kitchen. Tempus followed like a puppy on a lease, his gaze locked on the cookies. "I've got pretty much every kind of tea that you can imagine. What kind do you like?"

Nadia grinned cheekily. "Chamomile?"

"Is that a genuine response or are you making a pun about your name?"

"Both, I guess. I'm more of a coffee girl. I could tell you the exact differences between a cappuccino and a latte and why cappuccinos are the superior coffee-based beverages, but I couldn't tell you the first thing about tea." She shrugged.

Alecto could never understand that. In her eyes, tea should be a universal beverage, with at least two or three flavors in every household. "Well, you've come to the right place, then! Now, since you're a first-timer, I'd recommend something straightforward. Do you like apricot?"

"There's a such thing as apricot tea?"

"Well, it's technically a blend. It's got a basic black tea as a foundation, and the apricots are blended into the leaves. But yeah, it's a tea. Sound good?"

"Uh, sure. I like fruits and stuff."

"Awesome." Alecto got down an apricot teabag and an extra teacup. As she prepared the teas, she said, "My name's Alecto, by the way. Alecto Bellatore. As you probably already figured out, I'm a weapons meister at the DWMA. The blond currently having a religious experience over your baking skills is Tempus, my weapon."

"Hi," Tempus said distractedly, grabbing a few more cookies out of the tin. "Your cookies are the best."

"Thanks," Nadia said, placing the tin down and taking a seat at the t. "I've always had a bit of a passion for baking. My dad would teach me a lot of his recipes when we were little, and we spend every other weekend baking as many cookies and brownies as possible for my mom and my brother." Her mood seemed to fall a couple notched at the last couple of words, and Alecto considered asking about it. She decided against it; the two of them barely knew each other, and she didn't want to seem weird and invasive.

"That sounds like fun," she said instead. "Tea's almost done, by the way."

"Cool." Nadia bit her lip. "It was really cool how you killed that bastard," she said. "You didn't seem afraid at all, even when he really wanted to kill you."

"Yeah, well, truth be told, I was actually pretty scared." Of course she was scared; it was instinctive, so much so that she hadn't even put thought to her fear. "I just couldn't let him get away, you know? He'd already slipped away the night before, and I just… refused to let that happen again." Alecto focused on the darkening liquid in the teacups, mentally counting out the seconds. "How are you holding up, by the way?" she asked. "After what happened, I mean."

"Pretty good, all things considered," Nadia said. "I'd be a lot worse off if you hadn't gotten there when you did. I'm really grateful for that, by the way," she added.

"Well," Alecto said, "I'm a meister. And Tempus is a weapon. It's our duty to help keep the world safe and protect people from Kishin. I'm glad I was able to take Hudine down, and I'm glad I was able to save you."

Perhaps Alecto was imagining it, but she swore she saw Nadia's cheeks redden a little. The grey-eyed girl shifted in her seat for a few seconds before speaking again. "So, what's it like at the DWMA? Being a meister? A weapon?"

Tempus joined the conversation, having finally sated his desire for caramel chip cookies. "Well, weapons are actually pretty passive in combat roles, considering that we pretty much turn into sentient tools for the meisters to wield. It's mostly the meister that actively takes part in combat. That night with Hudine when I turned into my human was just a special case."

"Well, it was awesome," Nadia said emphatically.

"Thanks," Alecto said, "it was my idea."

"An idea that got you a chain to the face," Tempus pointed out.

"Worth it," Alecto replied. "As for being a meister and a student at the DWMA, it's actually a lot more like traditional school that you'd think. We have classrooms, tests, the whole nine yards. But it's also pretty dangerous. We need to learn how to fight and how to collect the souls of evil and dangerous beings, and then we need to apply that knowledge in actual combat. And as you saw, evil people aren't going to hold back. They'll try to kill you, and you need to learn how to push your conscience aside and kill them instead."

"Oh," Nadia didn't seem to know what to make of that answer. "Um…" She shifted in her seat again. "My twin brother actually goes to the DWMA. He's a meister there."

"Really?" Alecto said. "What class does he go to?"

Nadia shrugged. "We… don't talk anymore."

"Is that why you're not asking him all these questions?" Tempus asked. "Not that I mind or anything, you're decent company."

"Yeah." The way Nadia spoke indicated that she'd really didn't want to talk about that particular subject any more. Tempus seemed to catch on to that, and silently grabbed another cookie.

Alecto checked the teacups again. "Tea's done," she said, plucking the soaked tea bags out of the teacups. She grabbed two of them and handed them to Tempus and Nadia. "Almond for Tempus, and apricot for Nadia." She grabbed the final cup. "And apricot green for me." She took a sip, smiling contentedly as the light, almost floral liquid warmed her throat.

Nadia took a sip of her tea, and her eyes widened. "Wow," she said, "this is good!"

Alecto grinned. "It's tea. Was there ever any doubt?"

* * *

After that, the conversation dipped into small talk, with each person going into a little bit more detail about themselves. Apparently, Nadia was homeschooled, had spent most of her life in Death City, and her parents owned and ran a small "pizza and pastries" restaurant. "It's called 'Donald's Plenitude of Pies,'" she had said. "Kind of a cheesy name, but that's what my dad wanted to call it, and that little place had been his life dream, you know? If you ever get the munchies, feel free to stop by; you saved my freaking _life_, there's no way you won't get all the free pizzas you want."

At about ten-thirty, Nadia had left, citing a long walk home and an eleven-thirty curfew as the reasons why. Alecto had told her to come back whenever she wanted - she'd enjoyed talking to someone about something that wasn't fighting against evil - and as she closed the door behind Nadia, she was smiling.

"That's was nice," she said.

"Yeah, it's a shame we don't do it more often," Tempus said. He'd finally had his fill of caramel chip cookies. Alecto felt like there was an underlying point to his words, but she waved it aside. "Anyway," Tempus added, "I'm going to head off to bed. It's late, and I'd rather not end up falling asleep in class tomorrow."

"Seriously? You ate like a hundred caramel cookies, how are you not on a serious sugar rush right now?"

"I don't think the cookies work like that." Tempus shrugged his jacket off and slung it over the back of one of the kitchen chairs. "You'd best be getting to sleep soon, too."

"Yeah, I will in a few minutes."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"All right," Tempus didn't look convinced. "Good night, Ally."

"_Valē_, Tempus," Alecto replied, settling herself into on of the living room chairs and leaning back. Tempus disappeared into his bedroom, closing the door shut behind him.

Alecto ran her fingers through her hair, grazing the bump on her head. It was smaller now; perhaps she'd be able to take on new missions again soon. She thought about what Lord Death had said when she had reported Hudine's death to him. _I'd hoped you'd have progressed a little bit quicker._ Fifteen souls wasn't a lot, especially when you compared the amount she and Tempus had raised to, say, Maka and Soul Eater, but she'd thought it was a decent amount. It was better than nothing.

She bit her lip. Was she really not doing that well? She knew she wasn't the best meister in the Academy by a long shot, but she didn't want to let anyone down. Lord Death said he had high expectations for her, and Tempus was counting on her as his meister to help him collect the souls he needed to become a Death Scythe.

Getting up and ambling into her bedroom, she made a decision right then and there that she would take on a mission the very next morning, no matter what Dr. Medusa or Tempus had to say about it.

With those thoughts and worries still floating about in her head, Alecto fell into an uneasy, dreamless sleep.

* * *

_A/N - See? There's plenty of points in this chapter! This took longer to release than it technically should have, and that's because I forced myself to take most of Thursday off because I was worried I'd end up burning myself out. So I took a break from writing Soul Eater fanfiction, and spent that break watching Soul Eater._

_I may have a Soul Eater problem, guys._

_So, this chapter re-introduces Nadia Chamomile. When I first started this fic out, She wasn't really a character I had planned, but as I was writing chapter three, she just showed up and wouldn't go away, and since she brought a lot of potential for good story stuff, I let her stick around. Plus, she makes great cookies._

_There's not a lot of Latin in this chapter. Just a couple of words._

_**Vae!**: Latin for "Damn!"_

___**Valē:** Latin for "good night."_

___See, that's it, that's literally all the Latin. Compared to earlier chapters, that's a pittance. We need more Latin up in here._

___Chapter seven will be posted some time over the weekend. While you're waiting, feel very, very free to favorite and leave a review telling me what you think of the story! I love reviews a lot._

___- Diana "Nocte"_


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N - Chapter seven and the beginning of episode four gave me a little trouble with the timeline when it came to Sid's death, I figure an estimation of about a month between episodes three and four isn't... too ludicrous? Someone review and help me out here._

_Speaking of reviews, thank you to Carolinefdq for the review! I'm glad that you like how I wrote in Alecto and Tempus. And trust me, Kid and the Thompsons will show their faces in a few chapters. Though, knowing me, that'll probably be another 10-15 thousand words._

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Seven - Graveyard Shift? Extra Classes for the Meisters? Part 1**

* * *

Tempus was starting to worry about Alecto.

It had been several weeks since she'd finally recovered enough from her head wound to take on missions again, and she was throwing herself into it with the fervor of a fiery sun. Night after night the two of them had gone out to hunt down Kishin eggs across the state. They'd even pulled more than a few one-nighters, relying on their temporal desynchronization just to get back to Death City before school started.

To Tempus, it wasn't a big deal. He could thrive on three or four hours of sleep a night; he just slept the usual eight hours because he enjoyed it. But Alecto wasn't like that. He could see her stagger as she fought, her focused blurred by mental and physical exhaustion. He'd even caught her napping in class once or twice, and had to break a few rules and desynchronize time for the two of them so that she could get the rest she so desperately needed.

Whatever was driving her to these lengths, it was beginning to affect her in both classroom and combat, and Tempus knew it was only a matter of time before she ended up getting hurt again, worse than last time.  
So when he woke up that morning at six o'clock sharp and wandered into the living room to find Alecto curled up on the sofa, her pink curls a chaotic and tangled mess and her arms thrown haphazardly across the throw pillow, he was very tempted to just let her sleep and make up some sort of excuse for her. But he knew that at this rate she would probably wring his neck if he did that.

So, putting on a mask of early-morning glee, he leaned forward and pushed Alecto's shoulder. "Ally," he said, his voice reaching a singsong falsetto. "Ally, wakey wakey."

Alecto groaned in her sleep and rolled over. "_Accedas ad curiam_," she murmured, still clearly lost in whatever dream her subconscious had cooked up. Probably a dream about fighting Kishin.

"Okay, I have no idea what that means, but I'm sure it was something strikingly witty and profound or whatever." Tempus grabbed the throw pillow, wincing as he caught a glimpse of its embroidery. _Seriously,_ he thought in disgust,_ whose idea was it to let six-year old me get a "Hang in There" pillow. I would so throw that out if Alecto didn't think that it was adorable._ With a firm tug, he yanked the pillow out from under Alecto, letting her head collide with the couch cushions. "I said, wakey wakey!" he shouted, injecting as much joy and enthusiasm into the words as he could manage.

Alecto opened her eyes and blearily glared up at him, the flat black of her irises even flatter and blacker than usual. "No," she harrumphed. "No wakey wakey. Go away, I was ha-wing a good dream."

"Oh? What was it about?"

"Courts and stuff. Only it was a lot cooler and all the bad guys got thrown in lion pits."

Tempus's train of thought immediately barreled off the tracks and crashed into What-the-Hellsville, killing hundreds and hundred of innocent little thoughts along the way. "That… sounds like a blast of a dream," he managed to say.

"Yeah, and I'd like to finish it. So, and I say this out of my love for you as a friend,_ tace atque abi_." Alecto rolled over so that her back was to him.

Tempus didn't quite understand the last part of that exactly, but he got the general gist, and he figured that she needed the rest anyway. "All right," he said, acquiescing easily; he'd wanted to let her sleep from the get-go anyway, after all. "I'll tell the people up at the DWMA that you're sick or something." He straightened up, throwing the throw pillow over his shoulder casually. "Actually, the way you've been working, it's not that far a stretch." He turned away, leaving Alecto on the sofa.

He got ready for school, taking his time to make sure that his tie was straight and that the buttons on his copper-brown vest were all aligned correctly. Despite his diligent preparations, however, he had to admit that school had been a lot less enjoyable lately. The relatively recent death of Sid Barett still hung over the students like a smothering cloud, and Tempus kind of missed the dude.

Death wasn't exactly a great rarity at the DWMA. In this line of work, danger was omnipresent, and everyone had to be prepared to accept that a teacher could be there one day and gone forever the next. But Sid hadn't died bravely facing off against a Kishin or a Witch. From what Tempus had heard, he'd died when a figurine of the Statue of Liberty had found its way into his skull.

"Lady Liberty is a _bitch_," he muttered half-facetiously as he put his suit jacket on, straightening the lapels to his satisfactions. He raised his voice, calling out to his meister. "Ally, I'm heading off to school now! You just rest up, okay?"

No answer._ She's probably fallen back asleep_, Tempus thought, giving himself a final glance in the mirror before heading to the door. He was quite surprised, then, to find Alecto standing there, her hair immaculate and tied back and her eyes still bleary, but bleary in a bizarrely alert sense. "Uh," he said flatly. Train of thought number two joined the first, exploding for good measure. "I, uh. Thought you were going to dream about lions and lawyers?

"I'm not going to miss school because I'm a little sleepy," Alecto told him, a disturbing determination dripping from her words.

Tempus opened his mouth the point out that the last time she got a good nights sleep, she was sleeping off a solid steel chain to the cranium, but something in the way she looked at him told him that would be a very bad idea. Instead he nodded, making a mental note to keep an eye on her. If she started snoring, he was going to desynchronize time for her, no matter how much trouble it would land him in.

A weapon had to look out for his meister, after all.

* * *

Before class started, Crescent Moon was always abuzz with whispered gossip and idle conversation, and today was no different. Making sure to keep the corner of his eye trained on Alecto, Tempus leaned slightly forward and focused on the words and sentences forming around him. It was rude to eavesdrop, yeah, but that didn't mean that he wasn't going to do it.

Unfortunately, the topics of conversation weren't exactly of great interest. Mostly just people talking about their nights and whatever missions they were on. Tempus heard one girl mention how she'd manage to collect twelve souls, and he noticed Alecto visibly tense up at that.

He couldn't help but felt bad for her. Despite all the extra work they (well, mostly she) had been putting in, they had only managed to get one more soul to show for it, a Kishin egg of a soul that had belonged to a casino owner turned killer in Vegas. And even then, that had taken them a week and several events that Tempus preferred to forget about forever.

Honestly, he was still pretty disturbed about the blackjack table.

Regardless, the dismal ratio of work-to-reward was clearly taking its toll on her emotionally. Tempus wondered what had triggered this sudden bout of determination. Alecto had always thrown herself into her duties as a meister, but this was ridiculous.

In an attempt to ease his mind a little, Tempus focused on the people around him again. In the seat in front of him sat Soul Eater, who was leaning his chair back and had his hands behind his head in a cool and casual position that the buckler spear would have almost envied, if he didn't think he could pull it off better. Tempus considered leaning forward and scaring the white-haired boy just for the heck of it, but before he could, Soul spoke. "So, Maka."

"Quiet, please." Maka was sitting next to him, her nose buried in a book. Tempus wondered if it was one he knew. "Can't you see that I'm reading? Don't interrupt me." She was more belligerent than usual, and Tempus wondered if the two of them had gotten in a fight or something. It wouldn't surprise him.

"I don't get what you're so mad about," Soul said. "It's just a stupid book."

Now Tempus _definitely_ wanted to scare him. And while he couldn't see Maka's face to be sure, if the way her shoulders tensed was any indication Soul was about to be on the receiving end of a full-force…

"Makaaaaaa _Chop_!"

_Yup._ Tempus held back a snort of laughter as Soul reeled from the after effects of the Maka Chop, falling forward and hitting the desk in front of him. He held no pity for the boy in front of him. _Teach you to diss literature like that._

"Was there something you wanted to say?" Maka asked, returning her gaze to the pages of her book, her voice clinically scrubbed clean of any emotion.

"Yeah," Soul groaned, his voice strained. "It's about this rumor that's going around. You know that one teacher we used to have? The one who died? They found him with a Statue of Liberty sticking out of his brain."

"Yes, thank you for reminding us all about the gruesome demise of a relatively beloved teacher," Tempus said flatly, causing both Maka and Soul to jump in their seats. "I'm sure everyone here appreciates it, _really_."

"When the hell did you get here?!" Soul snapped.

"I've always been here," Tempus said, propping his elbows on his desk and his chin in his palms and smirking down at the two. "It's not my fault that you were merely unobservant." His smirk fell. "What's this about Sid?"

"You mean you haven't heard?" Soul inquired. "They say there's some weird dude that's been coming after students from the Academy lately. I guess some kid in the next class over got messed up pretty bad. The point is, everyone who's seen this dude, they all say the same thing." He arched his fingers into claws and opened his mouth in a sharp-toothed and wicked grimace, his voice dropping into a dark baritone. _"They say he was a zombie who had a hole in the middle of his forehead!"_

Tempus had to give the boy credit for his theatrics, even if all it earned him was another Maka Chop. "Did you really have to hit me again?" Soul winced into the polished wood of the desk that his face had become intimately re-acquainted with.

Maka ignored him. "So, your theory is that the zombie is Sid?" Her voice was laced with disbelief, and Tempus didn't fault her for it. "_Please._ It's only a story that someone made up to scare everyone."

Tempus had to agree. He tried to imagine Sid as a zombie, with greyish rotting skin and bits of his brain visible through a gaping hole in his skull. He tried to imagine Sid attacking DWMA students. He tried to imagine Sid as anything other than how he was when he was alive.

It wasn't working. And Tempus was pretty sure he was getting a headache from the attempt. As he rubbed his temples, forcibly shoving all ideas of undead teachers out of his head, the classroom door swung open, revealing a horrifyingly familiar face and the mane of crimson red hair it was attached to.

Tempus had never had any personal negative experience with Spirit Albarn, but as someone who considered himself to be friends with Maka, or at the very least good acquaintances, he felt like he should hate him on principle. Maka and her father were… not on good terms. While Tempus didn't know every detail, nor did he particularly care to, he knew enough about Spirit's adulterous escapades to understand and sympathize with Maka's distaste.

So he couldn't help but shudder a little when the red-haired Death Scythe called out (to a fairly quiet classroom), "All right kids, quiet down. Class is about to start." He walked to the front desk in a suspiciously professional manner. "I'm not going to bother taking attendance," Spirit informed the stunned class, pointedly placing the evaluation clipboard down on the desk, "but I will tell you one thing. Anyone who thinks the bell decides when class is over is wrong. I do. Clear?"

_Wow,_ Tempus thought, _when the hell did Maka's dad become such a serious hardass?_ As he glanced around, he noticed that everyone seemed just as confused as he was, with the exception of Kim Diehl, who was reading with a rather bored expression on her face.

In front of him, Tempus could hear Maka _tch_ in disgust and Soul say something quietly. "Hey, is it just me or is that stupid father of yours making that goofy face right at us?"

Looking closely, Tempus realized that Soul was right. Spirit was staring at his daughter her weapon with a grin that could be most charitably described as "the ludicrously pitiable attempts of a guy trying way too hard to reconnect with his estranged daughter."

"I think it's just you," Maka said, though she didn't seem to wholly believe it herself. "And please, do _not_ refer to him as my father."

Soul stood up a little, leaning over the desk with his palms flat against the wood. "What's up with this, Death Scythe?" he said. "Are you supposed to be our new teacher now or something?"

"I'm just a substitute until they find someone who can fill Sid's position permanently," Spirit explained, having picked up the eval clipboard again and was looking over it with sharp blue eyes. His voice took on a vaguely threatening tone. "But that still means I'm in charge of this class, so as long as I'm here…" he glared up at Soul, though it wasn't quite as intimidating as he'd probably meant it to be, "... you will call me _Professor_ Death Scythe."

And then, so quickly that even Tempus was left reeling, Spirit's demeanor changed to something considerably more friendly. "All right, then. Let's take attendance."

"You said you weren't going to _take_ roll!" Soul pointed out through gritted teeth.

Spirit waved off his words with a cheeky flick of the wrist. "I'm _not_ going to take attendance for the_ guys_. But I think I will for all the _ladies_."

_Okay, maybe 'friendly' isn't the right word,_ Tempus thought, suppressing another shudder. "Sleazy" was more like it. _Whose idea was it to let this guys teach?!_ He turned to Alecto, trying to gauge her reaction the all this… only to find her asleep in her chair. _Well, that's not surprising._ He hoped that his meister's impromptu nap would spare her from having to deal with their substitute's bullshit.

On the other hand, he could really do with some Latin profanity right about now.

Soul seemed to share his sentiments. About Spirit's bullshit, not about Latin profanity. "Damn it, quit being a creep!"

"Oh, _please_," Maka muttered in a _that'll-be-the-day_ tone.

Spirit scowled at Soul and scribbled something onto the eval clipboard before casually tossing it back on the desk and stepping forward, clapping twice. "Okay, let's get this class started!"

"Hey, old man, what did you just right down there?" Soul had practically climbed onto the desk at this point, with one black-and-yellow sneaker placed firmly on the flat surface.

Spirit turned to face the chalkboard. "Oh, that reminds me," he said. "Maka, Soul, Alecto, Tempus..."

"Bwuh?" Tempus's blood turned to ice as his name was called, and out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw Alecto twitch in her sleep when her name was called.

"What is it now?" Soul growled.

"Lord Death wants to see you in the Death Room."

"_Quid?!_" It was Tempus's turn to nearly jump out of his skin as Alecto, who was somehow suddenly wide awake, lurched forward in her seat, slamming her hands against the desk with wide eyes.

"You've been excused from class, so get going," Spirit continued, ignoring her sudden and unexpected outburst. "Shoo, shoo!"

"He wants to see us?" Maka and Soul said in unison.

Alecto sank into her seat, clutching her head and muttering in what Tempus assumed to be Latin, but it was so muted and incomprehensible that it could have been some completely made up language for all he knew. She seemed absolutely horrified at the idea of talking to Lord Death, and Tempus would give everything in the world to know what he was thinking.

_Well,_ he thought. _This day is shaping up to be just fantastic._

* * *

_A/N - Yay, the main plot's here! After over 20K words. I don't actually have that much to say about this chapter. I think I had something planned for this bit, but for the life of me I can't remember it. I already mentioned that I think the timeline is bizarre and that it's difficult to write down in fanfiction format, especially when ones characters are supposed to be all about the temporal bullshit. Something's slipping my mind, but I can't pin it down. Damn you, terrible memory!_

_So, let's talk about Tempus's throw pillow. You know that picture of the kitten on the branch and the cutesy "Hang in There" motto, right? From what I gather, that's kind of a staple of everyone's childhood. What's even the deal with those? Every one of my friends had at least something based off of that hang in there kitten. Did anyone even buy those, or do they just appear in people's houses? Is there a little Hang In There fairy that leaves her merchandise in you guest room? What is the deal?_

_Oh, right, this is the author's note of a Soul Eater fanfiction. I should probably get back on topic. Here's the translations for the Latin used in this episode._

_**Accedas ad curiam:** Means "You may approach the court." Alecto's probably having some messed up Phoenix Wright dream or something. Man, imagine Phoenix Wright, only the accused got dangled over a lion pit instead. That'd be awesome._

_**Tace atque abi:** Pretty much means "shut up and go away." Alecto is not a morning person._

_**Quid:** As mentioned before, means "what"_

_Chapter eight will be up soon. In the meantime, pretty please review and let me know what you think!_

_- Diana "Nocte"_


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N - Despite appearances, this chapter was actually a little tough for me to write. I wanted to convey Alecto's gripping fear of failure hasn't e without it seeming to conflict earlier characterizations of her (as her fear of failure hasn't been a real focus the past two arcs). I figure the recent stress that's been building up within her over the past few weeks would exacerbate any worries she would have, especially worries that are relevant to said stress._

_I've always wanted her to be a bit of a determinator and a perfectionist, but I'm not really sure how to portray that, especially as I am far from being a perfectionist. I'm much more of a Tempus than an Alecto. Perhaps you could review and tell me how I did?_

_Speaking of reviews, thank you to Superhero17 for reviewing, though I will say that I think my updating schedule doesn't make me a great author so much as it makes me an author that lacks a sense of time management._

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Eight - Graveyard Shift? Extra Classes for the Meisters? Part 2**

* * *

_This day is shaping up to be just horrible._

Alecto had pulled her ribbon out of her hair and was fidgeting with it nervously, yanking at it and wrapping around her hands as she, Tempus, Maka, and Soul stood outside the Death Room. A fog of anxiety had settled itself around the four young teenagers, but Alecto figured that, when said fog was coupled with the stress that had been slowly building itself up in the pit of her belly, she was probably the most nervous one here. Tempus didn't seem to be too terribly bothered by it, and Maka and Soul seemed more "apprehensively curious" than "scared out of their minds."

_Sēdās_, she told herself. _It's probably nothing. If this really was about disappointing Lord Death or failing your duty as a meister, Maka and Soul wouldn't be summoned down either. They're great meisters!_ Absent-mindedly, she started to gnaw at the corner of her ribbon, trying to take deep breaths and keep her heart from leaping out of her chest like a crazed bull._ But what if he called them down here for entirely different reasons than whatever reasons I was called down here for? But I suppose he'd probably call us down at different times. Is he mad about Vegas? That was mostly the Kishin's fault, I thought that fountain was pretty nice!_

She glanced at Tempus, who was giving her an odd look. "_Quid?_ I-I mean, what?"

"You're doing that thing you do with your ribbon and your mouth when you're nervous."

Alecto pulled the tip of her ribbon out of her mouth. "Yeah, so? Lord Death doesn't just call people down, of course I'm a little nervous." She tied the ribbon back into her hair, giving it an experimental tug to ensure that the bow was tied right. "Aren't you?"

"A little, but not to your levels. Jeez, calm down, would you? The way you're acting, it's like he's going to expel you or something." Tempus turned back to face the door.

_He's right. It's probably nothing. Wait, no, it's probably not nothing, because if it were nothing, Lord Death wouldn't be calling us down to the Death Room._ Alecto really wished she had some tea in her hands right now. Tea would be so helpful. She wondered how well tea would hold in a thermos. Perhaps she'd been preparing her school tea wrong this whole time.

As she considered the idea (mostly to drag her mind away from the crushing disquiet that plagued her mind, Maka stepped forward and banged the knocker on the door twice. "Hello?" she called out.

In response, the door swung open without the slightest sound (something that had always unnerved Alecto; doors were supposed to creak when they opened, damn it), and the four of them made their way down the guillotine archways that led to the Death Room.

Alecto hated the guillotine archways. While she knew that it was unlikely at worst and downright impossible at best, she was always worried that the blades of the guillotines would come crashing down and take off a limb or her head or something. She wondered if scaring people who walked underneath was the purpose or of the arches were there to add a morbid flair to the place.

"I wonder why Lord Death wants to see us," Maka mused.

"Who knows," Soul replied.

Alecto was baffled as to how they could be so infuriatingly_ calm_ about this. This wasn't just any teacher calling them to the front of the class, this was _Lord Death_. The Grim Reaper. Shinigami. _Mors Dominus_. A little apprehension to reassure Alecto that her fear wasn't crushing and irrational would be nice.

As if to inform her that yes, in fact, she was probably overreacting, Alecto was suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling that they were being watched. _It's probably nothing. Or maybe it's just Lord Death. There's no doubt that he probably keeps an eye over the entire school through that mirror of his._

Unfortunately, the truth was far, far worse as Alecto realized when a familiar voice piped up from above and behind them. "Assassin's rule number one! Dissolve in the darkness and erase you breath! Wait for an opening to attack your target!"

The four of them looked upwards in unison to see Black Star standing atop one of the guillotines, holding Tsubaki in her chain scythe from with his arms outstretched. _Wonderful,_ Alecto thought bitterly. _Just the person I wanted to see._

"Oh, look," Maka said amiably, "It's Black Star!" Even from this distance, Alecto could see Black Star's face of shock after being caught being "stealthy."

Tempus smirked. "Nice pose. I give it a seven."

"Why are you standing up there yelling like an idiot?" Soul called out.

Black Star seemed to be frozen in place through the power of either embarrassment or incredulity. Alecto was willing to place her denarii on the latter, because she was honestly unsure of the concept of "personal humiliation" had ever crossed Black Star's mind in his life.

With a flash of light, one of the chain shifted into Tsubaki's head and upper torso. "They found us pretty easily," she said, equal parts sheepish and exasperated.

A wide grin made its way across Black Star's face. "It can be real difficult to hide when you're as big a star as I am!" he declared.

_Nice recovery,_ Alecto thought, at the same time that Tempus muttered, "Nice recovery." The two of them shared a knowing look, and Alecto allowed herself to smile slightly.

Tsubaki changed into her fully human form, and she and Black Star leapt down off the guillotine to land gracefully on the crackled and robbled path that led to the Death Room. "Oh, well. That's a disadvantage I think I can handle!" Black Star declared. He nudged Tsubaki with his elbow, still grinning. "Pretty big of me, huh, Tsubaki?"

Tsubaki smiled encouragingly. "Oh, yes," the taller girl said.

The silence that followed could fill a hundred teapots before Maka spoke. "...Seriously?"

Seriously.

"So, Tsubaki," Alecto said, hoping to break the ice as the six of them started walking. "How have you two been doing lately?"

"Pretty good! We haven't collected any Kishin eggs recently, though," Tsubaki admitted.

"That's just because everyone we go up against is too scared to fight us!" Black Star said. "Those cowards are so scared of my massive presence that they run away before I even arrive!"

"That," Tempus said, "or they simply heard you coming from a mile away and decided that it would be smarter to just leave." He stretched his arms over his head, the sleeves of his jacket falling down his forearm. "Hell, if I were a Kishin and I knew that _you_ of all people were coming to make my life miserable, I'd want to put as much distance between where I _was_ and where I was _supposed_ to be as humanly possible."

Out of the corner of her eye, Alecto saw Soul grin a little at that. Black Star's grin widened in a much less subtle way, and she suspected that he didn't interpret Tempus's statement the way the statement was meant to be interpreted. "Well, they were a bit below my skill level," he said, pointing at himself with his thumb. "But just you wait. When I surpass even the gods in strength, those Kishin will be practically begging me to defeat them!"

"I'm sure we'll all be in awe when that day comes, Black Star," Maka said.

Tsubaki turned to Alecto. "What about you two? I heard you went to Las Vegas recently to deal with a casino owner who was stealing human souls. How did it go?"

"_Terribilis erat._"

"Huh?"

"We got the Kishin egg. I don't really want to go into details."

"Oh, okay." Tsubaki didn't press further, and Alecto really appreciated that. Tsubaki was probably one of the most genuinely _nice_ people that Alecto knew, and she was happy to know her. Of course, knowing Tsubaki also meant knowing Black Star, but Alecto could live with that.

As they neared the Death Room, Soul Eater addressed the elephant in the room. "So, what are you two doing here? Were you guys called in to see Lord Death too?"

"What if we _were?_" Black Star said. No one really had a response for that as they all walked into the Death Room.

While Alecto was certain that the endless blue skies and expansive makeshift graveyard were probably an illusion (a belief that was only solidified by the seemingly-floating windows), but there was still a certain disorienting realness to all of it that made her wonder on brief occasions if the laws of spatial relativity just didn't apply to the Grim Reaper and his living quarters.

Speaking of the Grim Reaper, Lord Death wasn't in the room. Instead, a single mirror stood in the middle of the room. Tall and thin, it towered over the students with an imposing presence that only served to further increase Alecto's nervousness.

"Here, I'll call him," Maka said, stepping forward. Breathing on the glass, she began to write, muttering as she did, "Forty-two, forty-two, five sixty-four, whenever you want him, knock on death's door."

The polished surface of the mirror rippled and began to glow. "Lord Death," Maka said, "are you there?"

The glow faded away, the mirror turning into a window to… somewhere and revealing Lord Death himself. "Yah, yah!" the Shinigami said, and the friendly note in his voice was such that Alecto almost allowed herself to relax. "Hi, hello, what's up?" Lord Death leaned forward slightly, and it looked like he was going to lean out of the mirror altogether. "Thanks for coming!"

"Scythe meister Maka reporting in!" Maka said.

"Yeah, and dark arm meister Black Star, too."

"And Tsubaki, I'm his partner."

Alecto forced herself to speak. "Buckler spear meister Alecto Bellatore reporting in, s-sir!"

"Clockwork buckler spear Tempus reporting."

"Well?" Soul said. "What did you want with us?"

Lord Death straightened up, the tone of his voice taking on a slightly more serious quality. At least, Alecto thought it was that way. Sometimes she wished that Lord Death had facial expressions so that she could read his emotions better. "Right. I have a little assignment for you guys to take on."

"Assignment?"

"Some extra lessons."

"_Q-quid?_" Alecto stammered, her blood turning to ice in her veins._ Extra lessons_. Students only got extra lessons if they requested them or if they were doing poorly in class. Alecto hadn't remembered requesting any, and one glance at Tempus revealed that he was just as confused and distressed as she was.

As was Maka, it seemed. "Huh?! Those extra lessons that _stupid people_ get? Those lessons?!"

"Not how I would have worded it," Tempus said, "but probably those extra lessons, yeah."

"Well, screw that!" Soul snapped, turning away from the mirror and scowling. "I'm gonna be a Death Scythe, I'm way too cool for extra lessons."

Alecto's only response to that was an incredulous whimper.

Lord Death's face was unchanging as always, but Alecto figured that he was probably giving Soul a disapproving stare. "Do you remember your duty as meisters and weapons?"

"Yes," Maka replied emphatically, standing straight and tall. "Our duty as meisters is to feed our weapons ninety-nine Kishin souls and one witch's souls. We collect evil souls in order keep the world at peace. We work to create a Death Scythe, a weapon of the Grim Reaper, Death!" The very first thing they taught in the Academy, and Maka Albarn had recited it word for word.

"You are absolutely right," Lord Death said. "But do you know how many souls you and Black Star have managed to collect for your weapons?" He held up his hands, forming O's with his thumbs and forefingers. "Exactly zero."

Maka, Soul, and Tsubaki looked equal parts stunned and shamed. Tempus's brows had knitted together, his face a mask of confusion. Black Star… laughed?

One Reaper Chop later, however, Black Star was sprawled on the ground and no longer laughing. "It isn't something to laugh about, Chuckles," Lord Death reprimanded.

Tempus cleared his throat politely, sticking his thumbs in his pockets and staring up at the Grim Reaper with inquisitive golden eyes. "Excuse me, sir? Alecto and I have managed to gather sixteen souls. Last I checked, that was more than zero. So why are we getting extra lessons?"

"Ah, yes," Lord Death said. "While it's true that you two have managed to gather souls, after the incident in Vegas…"

_I knew it I knew it was about Vegas. "Mē miseret,_ sir!" Alecto exclaimed. "If I'd known about the blackjack table, I would never have-"

"After the incident in Vegas," Lord Death repeated, "it's become apparent that the two of you could use the extra lessons."

"Sir," Tempus said, "with all due respect, it was only one fountain."

"And half a hotel," Lord Death pointed out. "Regardless, the two of you have talent, but you need to find a less dangerous and destructive method of hunting Kishin souls. That's why you're receiving these lessons. Anyway, are you all ready to learn what your extra lessons will entail? Maybe you've already heard to rumors."

"Rumors?" Alecto said blankly. She hadn't heard of any rumors. Unlike Tempus, she didn't eavesdrop on people's conversations before class.

"About Sid," Lord Death elaborated, "who taught here at the Academy until recently."

"Sid? So, I was right. It wasn't just a story," Soul said.

_What story? What rumors?_ Alecto cast a desperate glance at Tempus, who gave her an _I'll-explain-later_ look.

"Yeah. But a zombie? I always thought he was a really good teacher," Maka said.

Lord Death nodded. "You're right. When he was alive, he was regarded as an excellent teacher. But, when he became a zombie, he changed. He has been released from the fear of death, and now he wants others to have the same freedom he does."

Tempus looked to be a little taken aback at this. "Surely being a little afraid of dying is healthy," he said. "It keeps people from getting overly reckless, right?"

"That's not what Sid thinks," Lord Death said. "He is trying to train students to free themselves as well, but when a student won't listen, Sid attacks. Another difficulty is that we still don't know who changed Sid into a zombie, or what their motive could possibly have been."

In the blink of an eye, Black Star was on his feet. "Okay!" he yelled. "You can leave it all to me, sir! For our extra lessons we just have to eliminate these guys?"

"Eyup, that's pretty much it!" Lord Death said cheerfully. "Now, I don't want to put too much pressure on you, but if you happen to fail at these extra lessons… Then you're all going to be expelled."

_"QUID?!"_

_"WHAT?!"_

Everyone except Black Star reacted simultaneously and in the same manner, equal expressions of shock and horror and blood draining from their cheeks. Alecto couldn't believe it. She'd put so much work into her duties the past few weeks, hell, she'd put so much work in her duties the entire time she'd been a meister, and now all that work, all that effort, hung in the balance of a single mission.

What had she done _wrong?_

Where had she failed so disastrously in her duties? How badly had she let down Lord Death and his expectations of her, whatever they were? How badly had she_ fucked up?_ She realized that she'd subconsciously yanked her ribbon out of her hair and was fiddling with it again, but right now she didn't care about keeping her hair tidy.

Black Star didn't seem to be too bothered by this news. "There's nothing to worry about!" he said. "I can take care of guys like this in my sleep!"

"Well, in that case, you'd better get started!" Lord Death said. "I'll be waiting to hear you report in. Remember, if you fail you'll be expelled!" And on that final note, Lord Death's image faded away, revealing the mirror underneath.

"This is awful," Maka groaned. "I can't believe we're getting assigned extra lessons."

"I can't believe that I might get expelled without becoming a Death Scythe!" Soul exclaimed. "That is so not cool!"

"I can't believe we might get expelled because of Vegas," Tempus said. "It's not like there were any humans in that hotel."

"What happened in Vegas, anyway?"

_"Not the point."_

"I can't believe that you guys are so worried about this!" Black Star said. "This is gonna be a piece of cake!"

For once in her life, Alecto admired Black Star's overconfidence.

She didn't think this was going to go nearly so well as he did.

* * *

_A/N - When I started writing this fanfiction, I knew that I wanted my OCs to not be perfect students and that I wanted there to be proportionate consequences for their actions, be those consequences good or bad. I also needed an excuse to have Alecto be in the battle against Sid and I wanted to hammer in just how badly Alecto doesn't want to mess up her duties as a meister, so I put two and two and two together and made plot._

_Also, Vegas. What the hell happened in Vegas, anyway? While I don't have any intention of telling you lot all the details (because really, what would be the fun in that), I can say for certain that Alecto and Tempus did not blow up that fountain and that hotel. I know that's probably what you all were thinking from the way it was presented, but that did not happen.._

_But Vegas isn't important right now. What's important is today's lesson in rudimentary Latin._

_**Sēdās:** Essentially means "calm down." It's the second-person active present tense (wow grammar is complicated) form of "sēdō" which means "to calm" or "to assuage," so Alecto is pretty much telling herself to assuage those fears of hers._

_**Terribilis erat:** Means "It was terrible." More grammar info: "Erat" is the third-person past tense version of "Esse," which is the Latin verb that means "to be."_

_**Mors Dominus:** "Lord Death." Should be a given, given the context it's used in._

_**Mē miseret:** Means "I'm sorry." There are actually two forms of "I'm sorry" in the Latin language. There's "Excūsā" which is what you use if you didn't hear something and are basically asking "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" and there's "__Mē miseret," which is what you say when you're apologizing for a mistake._

___On a related note, Alecto mentions denarii in this chapter. A denarius was a coin commonly used in the Roman Empire that cropped up in about 211 BC and lasted until the third century AD._

___Learning is fun!_

___Chapter nine will rear its ugly head soon. In the meantime, please feel very free to favorite and leave a review telling me what you think! I love hearing people's thoughts on my work!_

___- Diana "Nocte"_


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N - I have a bizarre love-hate relationship with action scenes in writing. On the one hand, it's a lot more fun that writing dialogue-heavy scenes, where I have to try and portray what essentially boils down to "he said she said" within the prose either being too bland or too ridiculously overdone. But, on the other hand, it's incredibly difficult to portray the fast-pace tense-ness of a Soul Eater fight scene in the naturally slower pace of written format._

_I know I won't be able to completely capture the sheer awesome of a fight scene from Soul Eater. But I'd at least like to try and get as close as possible. Perhaps you could review and tell me what you think?_

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Nine - Graveyard Shift? Extra Classes for the Meisters? Part 3**

* * *

Hook Cemetery certainly lived up to its name. The wrought iron sign declared the graveyard's name in hooked and curly letters, while the fence itself had a plenitude of hook decorations. Hooks dangled from the gnarled, twisted branches of trees that had long since shed their last leaf, silhouetted against the dim light emanating from the moon's twisted, bloody grin.

The graveyard was also distinctly colder than the rest of Death City. Granted, Nevada was never particularly warm and cozy at night, but here the slow-rolling fog and unpleasant atmosphere only seemed to exacerbate the chill in the air. Shivering, Alecto tugged her cropped-waist jacket closer to her, zupping it closed with a decisive yank. It was an exercise in futility, though, as the cold of the graveyard seemed to seep through her skin and flesh and settle deep within her bones. She hated this graveyard. The sooner they got this assignment over with, the sooner she could go home, huddle under every blanket in the apartment, and drink about a dozen cups of hot tea. And the sooner she could do that, the happier she would be.

The only thing that broke the atmosphere was the pissed-off shouting of a certain white-haired weapon. "Come out!" Soul yelled. "Nap time's over, zombie!"

"Hey, maybe we could not let the possibly-homicidal undead teacher know our exact location?" Tempus shouted back, clearly not aware of the inherent irony of his actions. "Thanks!" The golden-haired boy (who'd tied his hair back into a bun again) was practically _huddling_, eying the lower-hanging hooks warily. Not that Alecto blamed him. At roughly the same height as Tsubaki, Tempus was probably the tallest of the six, and as such he was at the most risk of getting one of those damned hooks caught in his hair. Or his eye socket.

Trying not to think about her best friend with a hook through his eye, Alecto pushed her personal time into desynchronizing for a few moments and looked around, the relatively slow pace of the world around her allowing her to take in the details. _Tick._

The group of students were all standing in the general area of Sid's gravestone. It was a very simple gravestone; a cross propped on a small, rectangular pedestal with his first name carved into it. There wasn't even a year of birth or a year of death. It made Alecto a little sad, really. Sid was a good teacher, and he'd deserved a better gravestone.

Though, she supposed he didn't really _need_ it, now that he was a zombie and all.

With another _tick_, Alecto felt her little bubble of time shift and saw everything around her slow even further. She turned to see that Tempus had joined her in desynchronizing, his soul wavelength working with hers to amplify the effects and bring his time to meet the same speed as hers. "You know," he said, "We're going to get through this. We won't get expelled."

Alecto blinked. "You don't need to try to reassure me of anything, Tempus. I'm not going to let myself get expelled." The aching worry that had plagued her all morning had been washed away by a flurry of determination. If defeating Sid and whoever had raised him from the dead was what it would take to prove to herself and others that she had what it took to be a meister, than that's what she would do.

At this point, her determination was all she had.

Tempus gave her an odd look and shrugged. "I believe you," he said. "You just didn't react all that positively to the news, that's all. I've been worrying about you lately, Ally. You've been stressing yourself out way too much, and it can't be healthy."

"I don't want to let anyone down," Alecto replied, balling her hands into fists. "I don't want to make Lord Death disappointed in me. I don't want to fail my duties to you as your meister."

"Seriously?" Tempus asked. "That's what you're worried about? Ally, you couldn't 'fail me' if you tried. So rein it in a little, okay?" he said, nudging her with his arm. "At the rate you're going, you're going to burn yourself out."

"Yeah," Alecto lied, newfound strength filling her voice, "okay."

She wasn't going to lose. She wasn't going to get expelled. No matter how long it took, she wouldn't return to the Academy until this assignment was over, restraint be damned. _Qui audet adipiscitur_, after all.

No one ever accomplished anything by "reining it in a little."

_Tock_. The two of them released the grip their soul wavelengths held on their temporal space, and time balanced itself out. Soul was still shouting at thin air. "I'm _not_ gonna let myself get expelled over some walking dead guy! Come out you zombie bastard!" Meanwhile, Maka was clinging to the nearest tree despondently.

"I see the top students are taking this well," Tempus said.

It was Alecto's turn to shrug this time. "Well, they've worked really hard towards making Soul a Death Scythe. After all the effort they put into this, it's sort of obvious why they're upset over the idea of getting kicked out of the Academy." She could relate. But she couldn't deny that she was a little annoyed at them. If they were so upset about the idea of getting expelled, they should be helping track down Sid, not screaming and moping.

"Yeah." Tempus grinned wickedly. "It's a real dire situation we're in, if _Black Star_ is more level headed than Maka Albarn."

Alecto felt terrible for giggling like she did. Tempus had a point, though; while Soul was broadcasting his ire to everyone within a five-mile radius and Maka was moping, it was Black Star and Tsubaki who were examining Sid's grave and actually being somewhat productive. "Hey, Tsubaki," Black Star said, "This is Sid's grave, isn't it? You sure this is where we want to start looking, after all, don't zombies get up and move around a lot?"

An excellent point. Alecto's gaze darted about, alert for any signs of movement. She'd have tried to listen for someone as well, but over Soul's shouting that in itself would have probably been an exercise in futility.

"Might as well check this place first to be sure he isn't here," Tsubaki pointed out.

"True enough," Tempus said, stepping forward and kneeling in front of the gravestone. "Though if he spent most of his time in his grave, the dirt around here would probably be a bit looser." He pounded a fist against the ground. "Now, I'm no expert on graves, but this doesn't have that whole 'recently disturbed' feel to it."

Sitting down next to Tempus, Alecto ran a hand across the carren plot of dirt and realized that he was right; the ground was pretty well-set, as if it hasn't been disturbed in at least a few days.

"Looks like an ordinary grave to me," Black Star said.

"Yes, well…" Tempus gritted his teeth. "Oh, would somebody put a damn muzzle on that idiot?"

"That idiot" he was referring to was Soul, who was still shouting. "Come out! I never even_ listened_ to your lessons! So there!" He dissolved into maniacal and hysterical laughter.

"Soul seems...a bit disturbed," Tsubaki said.

"That's one way of putting it," Tempus muttered.

Alecto got to her feet. "Hey!" she shouted. "_Supprime tuum stultiloquium_! Forget Sid, at this rate you're going to wake every damn corpse in this graveyard, _stulte_!" She didn't want to have to deal with this. She wanted to defeat Sid, find whoever had turned him into a zombie, defeat _them_, and save her and Tempus from expulsion. If she lost her chance because of Soul Eater, she was going to knock him into the next continent.

She turned around to see if Maka had actually started to be productive, only to find the pigtailed meister still curled up against the tree. "I always thought I was a great scythe meister, like my mother was," Maka lamented. "How can I suddenly be _expelled_?"

"Maka, you're not expelled yet!" Alecto exclaimed. "And you're not going to be! You're a fantastic scythe meister, you're best in the class! The only thing that's keeping you down on the ground like that is yourself! _Qui audet adipiscitur_!"

Maka let out a moan of despair, and Alecto figured that perhaps she was probably not the best person to around making inspirational speeches, especially to meisters that were more skilled than her.

"What's up with Maka?" Black Star asked, clearly having not heard Maka's laments. "She seems kind of down."

"_Manifestum est_," Alecto snapped. Everything was happening and it was cold and Soul was still shouting ("Why don't you show your ugly face!? Did it go gray or something?") and she was just so frustrated and angry and yes maybe a bit worried. Her nerves were starting to wear a bit thin, and she wished that Sid _would_ just show his face already.

"Black Star," Tsubaki sighed reproachfully, "aren't you at least a little worried about all this?"

Black Star looked like the very concept of him being worried was completely alien. "Nah. It's not like we couldn't take this guy in a fight or anythi-"

"_WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU HIDING?_" Soul's voice cut through Black Star's words like a pair of scissors cut through tissue paper: swift and violently. Soul was practically steaming with anger at this point.

Black Star didn't seem to be bothered by being interrupted, instead opting to throw his arm over Soul's shoulders with a huge grin on his face. "Hey Soul!" he said. "Why don't we go piss on Sid's grave, why at you think about that?"

"Yeah! And while we're at it, why don't we take a dump on it, too!"

Alecto knew that this was just them trying another method of luring Sid out, but it was still kind of gross. And pointless. If Sid wasn't going to drawn out by Soul's unmitigated anger, what made the two of them think that vulgar taunts were going to help?

However, it seemed that Alecto was incorrect, because for a split second, the ground seemed to tremble. "Okay…" Tsubaki said, tensing up. "I think you guys can stop now…"

Then the ground burst open, and a mottled blue hand broke out of the soil and closed around Maka's ankle. The person that broke out of the earth after was… not Sid.

Well, he _was_, but he looked so _different_ that he might as well have been a completely different person. His once-brown skin had turned a strange grayish-blue in hue, and his face (Alecto could still remember his smirk as he'd told her, Soul and Black Star about Lord Death's son) had been twisted into a grimace that barely resembled any expression he'd have worn. What unnerved Alecto the most, though, was the hole in the center of his forehead, a clean circle that passed both skin and skull and sank deep into Sid's head. He was very clearly supposed to be dead and buried, and yet here he was.

Alecto had known they were going after a zombie, yet she still felt unease creep into her mind, locking her joints in place. The only thing that kept her from shutting down completely was the fact that Sid was dangling Maka upside-down with one hand and clutching a sharpened stick with another.

"Are you scared, girl?" Sid said, and despite all the other ways he had changed his voice was still so undeniably _Sid_. "I think you are." He moved to stab the stick at Maka's throat, and Alecto moved forward.

Before she could do something, or even figure out what to do, there was a shout of_ "Maka!"_ and a circle of light and movement spun through the air. Soul had propelled himself towards Sid while simultaneously shifting his weapon form, and managed to knock Sid away. Maka fell, landing on her feet and leaping away with a practiced grace comparable to that of a cat's. "That's what Sid's become?" she said.

_"Guess so."_

The six students. had formed a large triangle of sorts around Sid, with weapon and meister side by side. Sid stood in the center of them, tall and stoic. He spoke. "Maka. Soul. Black Star. Tsubaki. Alecto. Tempus. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good night."

Uh. "_S-salvē_?" Alecto stammered, confused and uncertain.

With a grunt, Sid wrenched his gravestone out of the ground. "How have you been and all that?" he said. "I always try to remember my manners. That's the kind of man I was." He shifted the gravestone so that it was tucking under his elbow, gripping the top with his opposite hand, clearly to keep it balanced.

"Ally," Tempus murmured besides Alecto. Knowing exactly what he wanted, Alecto grabbed his shoulder and gave him a look of agreement, and he transformed into weapon form, the leather of the buckler's glove wrapping itself around her fingers and securing him in place. Black Star and Tsubaki seemed to have the same idea, as the latter changed into her chain scythe form.

"Tell me, Sid," Maka said, pulling Soul out of the ground he had lodged himself in and twirling him so that his blade was facing up, "why are you doing this?"

"Ding dong, dong ding." Sid spoke in a singsong tone, his words an obvious mockery of a school bell. The way he spoke set Alecto's teeth on edge. "Being a zombie's amazing," he said. "There are so many more things I can get away with now." While his expression didn't change from its grimace, the tone of his voice seemed to change into something more anticipative, as if he were eager for what he expected to come next. "Class is in session. I always a man to start class right with the bell. Punctuality is important."

"This'll be fun," Black Star replied, grinning. "I get to teach _you_ a lesson now, teacher." He leaned forward into a battle stance, arms out with Tsubaki gripped tightly in his hands. "And since it's coming from _me_, you know it'll be a_ big_ one!"

_"We don't wanna be expelled,"_ Soul said, _"so we'll take your extra lesson. But I gotta say, I don't know what we're gonna learn from a decaying piece of flesh."_

"If you become a zombie," Sid said, "then death no longer looms over you. You can escape from fear and be free!"

"That's wrong and you know it!" Maka retorted.

_"Right!"_ Tempus said. His buckler gleamed in the moonlight, revealing his face in the reflection and subsequently in the back of A. _"Fear can be useful. Fear can be helpful! I fail to see any situation in which dying and turning into a zombie could possibly be helpful!"_

"What happened to you, Sid?" Maka said. "You were never the type of man who would say that!"

Sid let out a _tch._ "You'll understand," he said, leaping forward and swinging the graveyard in a wide arc towards Maka, "when you're _dead!_"

With their wavelengths, Alecto and Tempus grabbed their time and wrenched it out of sync desperately. _Tick._ Without even giving it a second thought, Alecto bolted forward, skidding to a halt between Sid and Maka and throwing her shield arm up. She dug her heels in and prepared for the blow.

It never came.

The sound of a chain whizzing through the air was the only warning anyone had before one of Tsubaki's scythes spun into view, the chain circling around the cross of the gravestone and forcing Sid to stop in his tracks.

"Alecto! Black Star!" Maka exclaimed.

Alecto glanced over at Black Star, who'd dug his own heels into the dirt as he gripped the other end of Tsubaki's chain. "There'll be no need to thank me for the lesson. It's on the house," he said.

"Hmph," Sid said. "I never was the kind of man… to hold _back!_" As he spoke the last word, Sid pulled the graveyard forward, sending Black Star flying. Unfortunately for Alecto and Maka, he was flying straight towards them, and ended up knocking the both of them back a few yards. "I recommend you just give up. You one-star meisters don't have a chance of beating me."

Alecto stopped in her tracks. "What." Give up? Did he just tell them to give up?

She could hear Soul shout, _"I'm hungry! Can we just get damn zombie soul already?"_ but it was muffled by the blood pounding in her ears. Red laced the edge of her vision, and she took a step forward.

"Give up?" she said. "Give up?! The only reason we're here at all is because of you! If we lose here, we lose everything, and you tell us to just give up?! _Abi in malam rem_, you bastard!"

"Sid's right, though," Maka said through gritted teeth. "He is very strong. One-star meisters like us can't compete with him. When he was alive, he was designated a_ three_-star meister."

"Maybe," Alecto growled. "But we've got one thing he doesn't." She shifted her position, readying herself. "_Time._"

"Alecto, wait!"

_"Ally!"_

_Tick._ Maka and Tempus's words had fallen on deaf ears. Alecto propelled herself forward, swinging Tempus's minute spear towards his torso. If he wanted fearlessness, he was going to get it, right through his rotten, useless hea-

She thought of Sid when he was alive. She thought of the teacher who saw the best in what the students had to offer, yet wasn't afraid to admonish them when they performed poorly. She thought of the teacher who'd taught them new skills and how to perfect the skills they had. She thought of the teacher who had made damn sure that his students tried their hardest in class.

She couldn't do it. She couldn't stab_ Sid._

_Tock._

A shallow cut. That was all the damage she did. A single, shallow cut, barely a scratch, across his upper torso that she wasn't even certain if he'd felt.. She'd held back, and she knew she was going to pay for it in about the next two seconds.

She was right. The stone of the grave collided with her side, sending her flying to the side. She crashed into the ground, tumbling into yet another gravestone. Fireworks of agony exploded in her retinas, and she was finding it a bit hard to catch her breath. Her vision blurred and doubled, and the graveyard spun around her.

Amidst the fog of pain, she could hear Tempus's panicked voice cut through the blue, clearer than a crystal pond.

_"Ally!"_

* * *

_A/N - Oh no! Is Alecto going to be okay? Well, since this is a F!OC/Death the Kid story and Kid hasn't even shown up yet, I'm going to put my money on "yeah, she'll be fine."_

_Unless Nadia suddenly becomes the main character. But that would be silly._

_I don't really have that much to say in regards to this chapter. It's pretty straightforward, and I don't have any cat pillows I can ramble about, so let's just get to the Latin of the day._

_**Qui audet adipiscitur: **I've used this phrase a few times, but since it's been a few chapters, I figured I should say that this still means "who dares, wins."_

_**Supprime tuum stultiloquium:** "Quit your blathering!" Hilariously enough, Google Translate translates this to "control your foolish" which could pretty much work just as well in this scenario. Soul is being pretty foolish, making his position that well known to anyone in a five mile radius like that._

_**Stulte:** Means "idiot."_

_**Manifestum est:** Literally means "It's obvious." While not the most grammatically correct option to go for here given the context (she's essentially trying to say "obviously"), I still think it gets the point across well enough._

_**Salvē:** A pretty formal greeting, "salvē" could mean "good morning," "good afternoon," "welcome," and "good evening" all at the same time. Which is pretty fitting, because she's responding to Sid pretty much saying all of those things._

_**Abi in malam rem:** The relatively literal translation is "Go to the devil!" So Alecto's essentially telling Sid to go right (back) to hell._

_Chapter 10 (!) will be up pretty soon. In the meantime. Feel absolutely free to favorite and leave a review telling me what you think!_

_- Diana "Nocte"_


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N - Holy crap, we're on the 10th chapter! That's a lot of chapters! This chapter was similarly difficult to last chapter, for similar reasons. Not only was I having the usual "action scene difficulties," I was having difficulty giving Alecto a significant part in the fight without her overshadowing Maka and Black Star. From what I gather, it's pretty bad form to have an OC completely overshadow canon protagonists. And with Alecto, well, what would even be the point of her whole "fear of losing" thing if she just breezed through and kicked all the ass? __But on the same note, I didn't want to have her be completely sidelined, or else what would even be the point of her being there?_

_Maybe you could leave a review and tell me how well I did on that front? 0:)_

_Speaking of reviews, thank you muchly to KaseyKay10 for favoriting, and to Carolinefdq and KaseyKay10 for leaving those lovely reviews! To Caronlinefdq's review, I must say that I am incredibly flattered to know that I've got you checking for alerts regularly! I'm glad I could catch your interest in such a way! To KaseyKay10, I say that I'm glad you enjoy the story, and not to worry! Kid will be showing up in about 2-4 chapters if I'm estimating correctly, and as for Dr. Stein... heh heh heh._

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Ten - Graveyard Shift? Extra Classes for the Meisters? Part 4**

* * *

_Tick._

_"Ally, don't you dare clock out on me! Say something, damn it!"_

_"Tace,"_ Alecto coughed, pushing herself to her knees. "_Vae,_ that hurt like hell."

_"Oh, thank goodness you're not dead."_ The relief in Tempus's voice was palpable.

"Don't you worry. I'm not going to die at the hands of some undead bastard who thinks its funny to try and kill people with his own gravestone." As she spoke, searing pain lanced through her side, causing her to gasp and clutch her ribcage. "I may need a minute, though." She wasn't quite as resilient as her comrades were, and her vision was still swimming before her eyes. She felt a warm trickle of liquid make its way down her chin, and prayed that it was just from a split lip and not severe internal damage.

_"Take all the time you need. With your help, I could keep the desynchronization going long enough for you to get back on your feet."_

Alecto hadn't notice that he'd desynchronized their time, which probably said a great deal about her physical state at the moment. None of it was good. "Tempus, right now I can't focus on my own hands, much less my soul wavelength. You can try if you want, but I'm not going to be able to help."

_"Oh, okay. And Ally?"_

"Yeah?"

_"Why didn't you take the shot?"_

Alecto froze. "What?"

_"Don't 'what' me. I know for a fact you could have done more damage than that to him than you did. What gives?"_

"It's Sid," Alecto replied. "Would you have taken the shot?"

Tempus was quiet for only a second, but it felt like an eternity. _"No,"_ he said finally. _"No, I suppose I couldn't."_

_Tock._ Time reasserted itself, and Alecto took the fact that she could barely tell as a sign to give herself a minute or two before she got back up again. She focused on the scene in front of her as best she could, digging her fingers into the cold, hard dirt to keep herself from falling over.

_"Hey, Sid!"_ she could hear Soul shout. _"If you keep swinging your tombstone around like that, you might bang it into your fat head and die again!"_

"It's _my_ tombstone," Sid pointed out. "I can use it however I want, can't I? Now then, kids," he said, his voice taking on a dangerous edge as he propped the tombstone up into the crook of his elbow, "it's time for second period. Ding dong dong ding! Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention," he added, "when this lesson is over, you're all gonna _die!_"

"Then I guess we'll be cutting class today," Maka replied, her voice full of just as much danger. "Think I'll go home and take a nice hot bath!"

What the hell _happened_ to Sid? Alecto just couldn't reconcile this zombie fiend in front of them with her memories of their former teacher. If this is what happened to someone when they died, then Alecto definitely wanted to win. She staggered to her feet. "Got any ideas, Tempus?"

_"Sort of. You remember what Lord Death said? We need to find another way of going about this, a way to hold our own against him with our talents."_

Aleco nodded. "Go on the defensive. Got it."

While the two of them had been talking, Maka had charged forward, swinging Soul in a sharp overhead arc towards Sid. The zombie parried the blow with his tombstone with ease, shoving her back. "What's wrong?" Sid demanded. "Why aren't you working together? You have to establish a connection between the souls of weapon and meister!"

"You're giving advice to the enemy?!" Black Star exclaimed as he leapt down from the top of the tree he had climb, lunging toward Sid.

"You know me," Sid replied. "I've always been an _enthusiastic educator!_" He swung the tombstone towards Black Star, who managed to block the blow with the sole of his shoe. Unfortunately for him, the force of the swing sent him soaring back the way he came. "That's the kind of man I was," Sid continued, propelling himself off the ground and following Black Star through the air. "And now I'll teach you how to die!"

With the mightiest swing yet, Sid struck Black Star with his gravestone, the resulting force driving the both of them to the ground with a brilliant flash of light. The collision into the ground stirred up clouds of dirt and dust, obscuring the graveyard around them.

"Black Star!" Maka cried out.

"_Vae!_" Alecto exclaimed.

Sid was an incredibly formidable opponent, there was no doubt about that. He was a three-star meister, after all, and that was a rank only given to exceptional weapon meisters. While his weapon wasn't with him, it was clear that even without her Sid could take them all on in a straight fight without any difficulty.

But after already getting pummeled with a gravestone, Alecto wasn't exactly eager to fight him straight on again. "Hey, Sid!" she shouted as the dust cleared, revealing the undead meister. "You know the phrase '_mortui vivos docent_' is a metaphor, right? It's not meant to be taken quite this literally!"

"Well," Sid said, "I always was the kind of man to do things unconventionally!" He charged at Alecto, his tombstone aimed straight for her head.

_He really does mean to kill us!_ "Tempus!"

_"Right!"_

_Tick._ Alecto ran straight at Sid and leapt forward, using the seconds she had stolen to her advantage. She easily landed on Sid's gravestone, which was moving at a crawling, lethargic pace in her eyes. _Tock._ Sid was clearly a little taken aback by her choice in tactics, and that gave her the chance she needed to jump into the air, using the gravestone as a springboard. "You're pretty slow, Sid," she taunted, somersaulting through the air and landing on the ground a couple feet away. "Has _rigor mortis_ set in that bad already?"

Barely missing a beat, Sid continued to swing the gravestone in a full circle. _Tick._ Alecto ducked her head and threw up her shield arm. _Tock._ The stone base of the gravestone struck Tempus square in the center of the buckler, and the sheer strength of the blow sent a dull, numbing agony shooting through Alecto's arm. _Tick._ Gritting her teeth and trying to focus on happy thoughts and not pain-filled thoughts, Alecto gave Sid's ankle a swift kick before scrambling out of range, diving behind the nearest stationary tombstone to catch her breath and let feeling return to her arm.

_"You know, this sort of reminds me of Vegas,"_ Tempus remarked. _"Only with less entrails and more dead people."_

"Let's hope this doesn't take as long as Vegas did," Alecto replied.

_Tock._

Alecto's attack had staggered Sid, but only momentarily. He soon righted himself, propping the gravestone up on his shoulder and crouching into an offensive stance. "Ding dong, dong ding," he repeated menacingly. He was addressing Maka, who stood opposed to him, determination easily apparent in her green eyes. "Looks like class is over. Ready to die yet, girl?"

Maka didn't answer.

"Well, whaddya say?" Sid continued. "Aren't you afraid of dying? If you become a zombie, then you'll be free from that fear of death forever."

"Nnngh. My head is killing me." It was neither Alecto nor Maka that had spoken those words. Rather, it was Black Star, who had managed to shake off the damage of the blow he'd just been dealt fairly easily and sit up. Blood trickled down his forehead, and for a second Alecto thought that was what we was referring to. But then he continued speaking. "Your preaching is starting to give me a headache, you damn zombie." His expression dark, the blue-haired assassin pulled himself out of the crate that Sid's attack had left behind and stood up. "I'm not listening to any lesson of yours. It doesn't matter what you say. Who's going to pay attention to a rotting corpse like you…" A combat fury filled his teal green eyes. "_...as long as there's a big star like me around!_"

His attitude had completely changed. No longer was he the unfazable, self-concerned idiot that he had been. Now, just looking at his expression made Alecto believe that, for all his failure on missions, this boy could be a skilled meister.

Credit where credit was due, she supposed.

Black star slung on of Tsubaki's "dark arms" to Sid's left, the chain extending impossibly far to accommodate the throw. "Being a three-star meister doesn't _matter!_" He slung the other arm to Sid's right, essentially barricading any means the zombie had for dodging. "I am… _BLACK STAR!_"

With a shout that reached volumes that would make most jet engines envious, Black Star ran forward, jumping forward and driving the heel of his show straight into Sid's torso; right in the solar plexus, if Alecto were to guess. The force of the blow pushed Sid back a few feet, and Alecto swore that she could see blood coming out of his mouth. The zombie was forced to retreat, backing away from Black Star without hesitation.

She had to admit, she was starting to respect Black Star a little bit. Not like him, per se, but she knew a good hit when she saw it.

"Tsubaki, shuriken mode!" Black Star said.

_"Right!"_ With a flash of yellow light, Tsubaki changed her form, going from a chain scythe to a large, five-pointed shuriken.

"You can't run away!" Black Star shouted at Sid, throwing the shuriken at the retreating undead.

"Hrmph," Sid said. "As if I'd even try!"

He jumped and landed on Tsubaki, using her as a springboard as he propelled himself upwards into the air. With a mighty cry, the blue-skinned zombie flipped in the air and brought the tombstone down… on Maka.

"Maka!" Alecto cried out. Another blinding flash of light and a cloud of dust obscured her vision, and she couldn't see what had happened. _Vae, vae vae!_

As the dust cleared, Alecto's heart skipped a beat with surprise. Maka had managed to just barely dodge the gravestone, and was completely unscathed. "People need fear to survive!" the light-haired meister shouted. "We experience it so that we can grow stronger!" Then she brought her feet forward and kicked Sid squarely in the jaw, the force of the blow driving Sid into the ground and allowing Maka to land on her feet and jump away, spinning to face Sid again with a distance of a few meters between them.

Alecto took the opportunity to leap away from her position behind the stationary gravestones. _Tick_. She ran up to Sid's gravestone and hooked Tempus's minute hand spear through the cross. _Tock._ "That's enough playing with this!" She exclaimed, using the extra leverage granted to her by the spear to heave the gravestone away. "You've had your fun, Sid."

_"Hey, Ally. What are Maka and Soul doing?"_

"_Quid?_" Alecto turned around to see Maka twirling Soul over her head a few times before swinging him in a downwards arc, moving into an offensive stance. "Eh?"

When Maka and Soul spoke in unison, though, Alecto's confusion was replaced by incredulity.

_"Let's go, Soul Resonance!"_

"_Quid?!_"

Alecto could sense the power that was rolling off of their soul wavelengths in droves, and she could see the sparks of green energy, but she still couldn't believe it. She'd never seen Soul and Maka perform a Soul Resonance before.

She couldn't help but be excited. The two of them were an incredibly effective team, and Maka was the top student in their class. _Their Soul Resonance must be incredibly potent!_

Soul's blade faded into an arc of blueish-white light, seemingly confirming Alecto's hopes. "The legendary super-skill of the scythe meister," Maka said, pulling the scythe back. Soul's blade became… _huge_, taking on an appearance more akin to the hybrid of a scythe and a halberd, if halberds were ten feet tall and glowing with soul energy. _"Witch hunter!"_ Maka screamed, swinging.

Alecto was so excited that she didn't notice when Maka stumbled. It was only when the resulting blast of energy was carving through the dirt towards her and Black Star that she realized it'd probably be best to _get out of the way now._

She dove to the side as the energy rushed past, and she couldn't help feeling confused and a little disappointed as she hit the ground. She'd hoped to see Maka and Soul perform a successful Soul Resonance that knocked Sid cold. She hadn't wanted to almost get _bisected._

The light faded away, leaving a huge scar in the earth and a massive hole in the wrought iron fence that had surrounded the graveyard._ "What the hell?"_ Tempus exclaimed. _"Top of the class, my polished clockwork ass! How'd you clumsy fools even manage to get ninety-nine souls the first time around?"_

Black Star was just as angry. "Are you trying to kill us? What the hell, Maka?!"

Maka's attention (and ire) were focused on Soul. "Oh, _nice!_" she shouted sarcastically. "This is all your fault! Do it right, idiot!"

_"What?!"_ Soul retorted. _"You've gotta be kidding me? Why is this my fault? You're the idiot here, getting mad at me for nothing! Die!"_

"Die?! How can you say that? _You_ die!"

The two of them dissolved into bickering for a few seconds, and Alecto couldn't help but be more than a little annoyed. Sid was still standing after all, they could save their bickering for after the fight.

"I wanted to do it without the super skill!" Maka yelled, finally remember that they were in the middle of combat and running towards Sid. "I just wanted to do things the simple way!" She jumped forward, swinging Soul at Sid.

But before the blade of the scythe had a chance to connect, Sid just suddenly wasn't _there_ anymore. Where he stood, there was only a hole in the ground, leading dont to who-knows-where.

"Huh?" Maka exclaimed. "He's gone!" The scythe meister shot a look at Alecto, who gave a_ don't-look-at-me_ shrug. It made sense that Maka's first thought would have been Alecto; to the untrained and unaware eye, her temporal desynchronization could be misconstrued as short-distance teleportation, which was exactly what it seemed like Sid had done.

_"No,"_ Soul said. _"Look. He's hiding underground."_ He was clearly referring to the hole that Sid left behind.

"He's down there?"

As if in answer, the ground behind Maka shifted and broke open, and Sid came bursting out into the open, bringing his fist down. He still had the sharpened stick; somehow, in all the commotion, Alecto had forgotten that he wasn't quite unarmed.

Without even glancing at each other, Black Star and Alecto moved at the exact same time. Alecto aimed at Sid's ankles again, bashing the shin of her old teacher with the flat of Tempus's shield. Black Star leaped between Maka and Sid, parrying the blow with Tsubaki's chain before striking.

The force of Alecto's blow had caused Sid to stagger, but instead of taking a chain scythe to the face like he should have, he merely sank into the dirt again, disappearing from sight.

_"Damn! He dodged our attack again!_" Soul said.

Alecto was starting to get a little annoyed. How long did they have to fight against this guy?

One of Tsubaki's scythes gleamed in the moonlight, Alecto could see the weapon's face and shoulders in the reflection of the metal, her dark blue eyes sharp with determination. _"Now, Black Star."_

"Yeah." Alecto had never seen Black Star this serious before. "I got it. What Sid's doing now is using the first of the assassin's rule."

_"Dissolve in the darkness and erase your breath. Wait for an opening to attack your target."_

"Tsubaki. Let's get a step ahead of this guy."

_"Right."_

To Alecto's shock, Tsubaki's chain began circling around the three of them in a wide loop, the chain extending again. Alecto took a step back, the three of them standing back-to-back as Tsubaki's chain began to move around the graveyard, crossing over itself and looping around gravestones.

She glanced over her shoulder at Black Star. The dark expression from before was back on his face, and he stood stone still. Was this the same boy who'd laughed at the mere mention of getting expelled, the same boy who boasted on a regular bases that he'd be able to surpass even the gods but somehow could never even get a single soul? If this was what he was like in a serious battle, why was he never able to complete any missions?

Alecto wished that she could hear the assassin's thoughts, because right now, the only thing she could hear was the sound of the faintest breeze rustling the bare branches of the trees around them. She realized that she was holding her breath in anticipation. She'd no idea what was going to happen. The ground beneath her feet was still, and for the briefest of moments, she thought that maybe Sid wasn't going to come out.

Then the ground tore open, and Sid broke through, the grimace on his face even more dour than before.

Sid was quick, but Black Star was quicker. "Trap star activate!" he shouted, giving the chain in his hand a firm yank. "I think that it's about time to send you back to the grave. You really stink!"

The chains drew closer, moving in to constrict Sid. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one the chains were closing in on.

_Tick._ Alecto jumped, hopping onto Sid's head and leaping clear of the chains. _Tock._

Maka didn't have the power of temporal desynchronization on her side, however, and she and Soul had been trapped in the chains as well as Sid. As Black Star laughed triumphantly, she shouted, "What are you doing, tying me up along with this guy!"  
"I wouldn't have to if you didn't get in my way!" Black Star replied, doubled over and laughing hysterically as Maka kicked futilely in his general direction.

Alecto landed quite solidly on Sid's head. "Wow. And to think, for a few seconds there you almost weren't terrible at your job," she said.

"When I'm done with you, Black Star, you are going to be so dead!" Maka snapped.

_"Speaking of the dead,"_ Tempus said, _"Our assignment's only half over."_

"Yeah, you're right." Alecto prodded Sid with Tempus's spear. "Hey,_ praeceptor_. Who's the guy who shuffled you back onto the mortal coil?"

Sid let out a _hrmph._ "Don't think you'll get anything from me. I never was the kind of man who would snitch."

Alecto could think of at least one instance where that wasn't the case, but she decided to let it go. "All well and good, all well and good. But I think that you also weren't the kind of man to let a dangerous person just run around free." She tapped her foot. "So?"

There was a couple seconds pause. Then Sid spoke.

"His name is Dr. Franken Stein."

* * *

_A/N - Not the chapter I'm most proud of, but I do really like how some of the scenes came out. Hopefully I'll like the next chapter more. Like I said, I've got a love-hate relationship with action scenes, and unfortunately for me, most of Soul Eater is nothing but action scenes._

_Ah well. Beyond that, I don't really have much to say about this chapter that I haven't already said up above, except that really like episode 4. Episode 4 is a fun episode, and I had fun writing the events that took place it in. So with that out of the way, let's get to the Latin._

**_Tace:_**_ Means "shut up"_

_**Vae:** Means "Damn"_

**_Mortui vivos docent:_**_ Literally means "the dead teach the living." Usually used as a reason behind performing disections and autopsies on corpses. Or, in this case, when your old teacher comes back to life and tries to kill you in an effort to teach you how to cast away your fear of death._

_Man, Soul Eater is messed up when you take it out of context._

**_Rigor_**_** mortis:** A commonly used phrase that refers to the body's tendency to stiffen after death._

**_Praeceptor:_**_ Means "teacher," "instructor," "master," etc._

_Chapter 11 will be up shortly. In the meantime, please favorite and leave a review telling me what you think!_

_- Diana "Nocte"_


	11. Chapter 11

_A/N - I wrote nearly 4000 words over the past 7 hours. I am a goddamn force of nature and cannot be stopped. I should probably be stopped, though. This is definitely a very long chapter right here (over 5000 words, counting the author notes), so buckle in your seat belts. I think we're nearly at the 50k word mark, too!_

_This chapter was one I wanted to write as quickly as possibly, because __Dr. Stein kind of scares me a little (read: a lot), I'm not going to lie. He's an interesting character, to be certain, but he really does give me the heebie-jeebies. I hope I got his demeanor right in this chapter. Review and tell me what you think!_

_Speaking of reviews, thanks to KaseyKay10 for reviewing!_

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Eleven - Graveyard Shift? The Mad Meister's Crooked Gear, Part 1**

* * *

"So this is where we find Stein?"

"Seems like it."

"It's creepy."

As Alecto gazed up at the building, she had to agree that "creepy" was certainly the right word for it. Tall and sharp, the building shaped like a hodgepodge of boxes and arrows and boxes had been messily glued together. Dark seams seemed to run across the walls, seams that upon closer inspection were in fact _stitches_ that were sewn into the very stone of the walls. It was truly the house of a madman.

She glanced over at Sid. He was still wrapped in Tsubaki's chains, were were now stemming from the taller girl's long, thin black ponytail. He was the one who had given them this address, and the one who had told them how to get to it, but not before giving them a warning.

She remembered what he'd said about Dr. Stein. _"He is one of the most powerful and skilled men I've ever met, and I was never the sort of man to say that about just anyone. However, he is also a madman. He is like me in that the fear of death has no hold on him. He won't hold back."_

Alecto didn't see much of a problem with that. After what the six of them had to deal with over the course of the night, she didn't really feel like holding back either.

"He's here," Maka said. Her certainty in the matter didn't faze Alecto; Maka had the relatively unique ability to see souls, and even if she wasn't actively utilizing that ability, she always had a way of sensing when other presences were nearby. Alecto had learned that when Tempus tried to sneak up on Maka and give her a scare one time, only to be on the receiving end of a Maka Chop.

"Let's hurry and finish this guy off, then," Soul said. "I'm ready for these lessons to be over." The weapon cast a sanguine gaze over the building. "Geez, he even put zigzag stitches on his laboratory."

Tempus shuddered. "Yeah, this place is giving the the chills."

_Tick tick whirrr tick._ Alecto jumped at the sound of a bizarre ticking noise. It wasn't like the clock-like ticking that echoed in her ears when she and Tempus desynchronized their personal time bubble that only the two of them could hear. Rather, it was a more solid, mechanical ticking punctuated by occasional whirring. And judging by Soul's confused look, she wasn't the only one who heard it.

Two two of them glanced down to see a mechanical mouse by Soul's foot. Its carapace held the same patchwork quality as the building, with the same stitching across the face and body. With another whir, it turned and looked up at them with beady eyes. _What sort of contraption is that…?_

"Interesting architecture," Maka said. "I wonder what kind of guy this Stein is."

In response, the door in front of them swung open with a slow and ominous creak. Inside the building, a faint, indistinguishable noise could be heard.

"Something's coming out of there," Soul warned.

The noise grew louder and louder, making Alecto in preparation to face whatever or whoever was about to come charging out. The noise was beginning to sound a bit familiar the louder and clearer it got. _Are those…_

_...wheels?_

A figure sitting on an office chair came wheeling out, only to crash as one of his wheels caught against the threshold of the door and toppled over, spilling them onto the ground unceremoniously.

Uh. Was _this_ the mad and dangerous Dr. Franken Stein that they had been warned about?

The figure got up and dusted their coat off before sitting back in the chair, backwards this time. "_Damn_ it. Still doesn't feel quite right."

Now that he was facing the meisters (even if his chair wasn't), they were able to get a look at this bizarre person who'd come tumbling out of the building. He was a man in about his mid-thirties, though the dull gray of his unkempt hair and the sallow, sickly tone of his skin would have him seem to be far older. He was very tall and _very_ lanky, to the point Alecto was willing to bet that under those clothes he was practically skin and bones. Speaking of his clothes, they held the same patchwork quality as the building and mouse. His shirt seemed to be made of two wildly different types of cloth, and his lab coat looked like it had been cut apart and then messily sewn together just for the heck of it. He wore a pair of round glasses that reflected the dim moonlight, obscuring his eyes.

The man's most prominent feature, however, was the large screw embedded in his head in a way that should have _not_ been possible. It was this screw that the man was turning, and the sound it made was like someone trying to wind up a music box or one of those little walking toys that you got in the kiddie packages at fast food places. The man paused, seemingly satisfied. "Hmm," he said. "Maybe that'll take care of it."

Alecto and Tempus exchanged a bemused glance. What the hell was this guy's _deal?_

The man… who Alecto presumed to be Dr. Stein… stood up, gripping the back of the chair. "Okay," he said to the band of thoroughly confused youngsters, "I'm gonna try that again." He proceeded to walk back into the building, wheeling the chair behind him.

As he disappeared into the darkness, Soul spoke up. "Um. Shouldn't someone stop him?"

"But… we just met him. Isn't that rude?" Maka asked. She sounded mostly baffled at the whole situation, which was exactly how Alecto felt.

Tempus shook his head. "Yeah, I ain't going anywhere near that hot mess with a ten-foot pole."

"Tempus," Alecto said, "you _are_ a ten foot pole."

"Not true. At my twelve-thirty position, my maximum diameter from spear tip to spear tip is only about four feet."

"I'd like to see what happens next," Black Star said.

"Yeah, so would I," Tsubaki added.

It wasn't as if going to stop Dr. Stein would be all that necessary, anyways. Within a couple seconds, the sound of an office chair rolling across a floor sounded out again. It grew louder and louder, and Alecto was starting to wonder what would happen…

...when Stein came rolling out and hit the threshold again, his chair tipping over ceremoniously and hitting the ground with a crash. In that moment, Alecto could be certain of what everyone there was thinking. _Is this guy for real?_ Alecto herself could think of many words and phrases to describe this bizarre man in front of them (in fact, bizarre was one of those words) but "a legitimate threat" was not one of them.

From his position on the ground, sprawled and disheveled against the pavement, Stein looked up at them. "Was there something you kids needed me for?" he asked.

"Yeah," Soul said, "if you're really Dr. Stein."

"You did this!" Maka exclaimed, pointing a finger at Sid, who was just sort of standing there with an odd look on his face. "You're the one who turned Sid into a zombie!"

"Oh," Dr. Stein said as he got up, righted the chair, and sat right back down. He sounded _bored_, as if he'd expected something more interesting than a sextet of annoyed teenagers dragging a blue zombie to his house. "So that's it. I'm guessing you guys are all students from the Academy, then."

"Why did you do this?" Maka asked. "Revenge? A grudge?"

"No, no, nothing like that," Stein said. "I have a simpler motive. Experimentation and observation, that's all a true scientist cares about. And," he added matter-of-factly, his spectacles shining in the moonlight, "I am a scientist. Everything in the world is an experimental test subject. Of course, that includes myself, as well."

He said this all with an even, mildly interested tone, as if he were explaining that the sky was blue or that clouds were made out of water vapor.

Maka's expression didn't change at the doctor's words, but after a few seconds she suddenly looked surprised. She whispered something to Soul, something that Alecto couldn't catch.

"Huh?" Soul said. "Like what?"

Stein spoke again, in the same flat tone. "Your souls' wavelengths aren't very stable."

_What?_ Alecto took a step back. Was he… looking at Maka and Soul's souls? Could he see them, like Maka could?

Could he see _hers?_

"What's more," Stein continued, "they're quite different from one another. I see one soul that is careless and arrogant, and one that is earnest and strong-willed. They appear to be in resonance, but they aren't."

"What the hell? You mean you can see the soul of someone who's still alive?" Soul asked. "In that case, you must be a meister."

Alecto felt a wave of uneasiness wash over her at that statement. Defeating a mad scientist was one thing, but defeating a mad scientist who had the skills of a meister was another thing entirely. Even with the six of them, it had taken a lot of skill to defeat Sid, and he wasn't able to look at someone's soul and figure them out like this man apparently could.

"He was able to read the character of the souls, too. Only the best meisters can do that," Maka pointed out. Stein grinned at that statement. Alecto couldn't tell if it was an arrogant or prideful grin or a modest grin or an impressed grin or _what._ It was… just a grin.

"So what? Maka," Soul said, "you can see souls clearly like that too, right?" He turned to look at his meister.

"Oh. Well, of course I can." Maka seemed to react oddly to Soul's question, though alecto couldn't figure her reaction out for sure.

"Your soul seems confused by that last statement," Stein remarked. "How cute."

"Shut up!" Maka said, covering her chest with her arms as if that would hide her soul. "Quit it! Stop looking at my soul, you creep!"

"Yeah, shut up, little doctor-man!" Black Star spoke, but he was no longer standing by Tsubaki like he had been half a minute ago. Instead, he was perched on the flat stone roof of the building, his arms crossed over his puffed-out chest. "No one wants to hear you talk anymore!" Black Star shouted from his position on the rooftop. "Ya-hoo! How about we change the subject to a more interesting conversation topic. Like me, for example!"

"When did he…?" Tsubaki sounded just as confused as Alecto felt. Tempus shrugged.

"Who cares if you can see souls?" Black Star declared. "What does that matter, huh? Not like you're gonna see anything interesting." He leapt down to the ground, landing on his feet with ease. "As far as I'm concerned, the only soul worth looking at is _mine._"

Stein laughed. "Yours _is_ an interesting one," he agreed, clearly amused by the blue-haired boys antics. "Your soul is extremely self centered and more than a little bit wild." He grabbed the head of the screw in his skull. "It must be rather difficult to find a partner with a soul that's compatible with your own, isn't it?" He turned the screw once, with a sharp whir.

Black Star was clearly pissed by the rather bored tone Dr. Stein had in his voice when talking about the former's soul. "No more talking!" he snapped, and jumped forward, aiming a kick at Dr. Stein's head with the obvious intention of knocking that screw in his brain loose.

Without even looking, Dr. Stein deflected the blow with his forearm, spinning in his chair as his did. Black Star kicked again, and again Dr. Stein just casually blocked it. And then, taking advantage of Black Star's confusion, the doctor struck out with a blow of his own, sliding over to the boy on the office chair and punching him right in the mouth without even a warning.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki cried out.

"Hm?" Stein turned around, looking as if he was noticing her for the first time. "As yes, I see it now," he said, his voice still as infuriatingly unaffected as before. "You must be the wild one's partner. You're always willing to compromise and possess a very accepting nature. It makes sense that you're the one who's able to cooperate with his soul's wavelength."

"Whoa, whoa, _whoa!_" Alecto exclaimed, stepping forward. "_Audīs, bucco!_ Who told you that you could go looking through people's souls like that, you creep?"

Stein turned his gaze to her. At least, she thought he did; it was hard to tell with his glasses. "Ah. Your soul is very unsure of itself, and for good reason. You pretend that you are strong enough to stand on your own, when in reality you have the weakest soul here."

Alecto froze. "Excuse me?!"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Tempus shouted, placing a hand of Alecto's shoulder. "My meister isn't weak, you son of a bitch!"

"And _your_ soul," Stein continued, speaking to Tempus now, his gaze focused on something deep within the blond boy's heart, "is very cautious and defensive. It also has a very unique wavelength. If I had to guess, I'd say you had a difficult time finding a partner whose wavelengths were compatible with your own."

Taken aback and unnerved probably a little bit frightened, Tempus maneuvered himself so that he was standing _behind_ Alecto, who had rolled her hands into fists. What right did this man have to go prodding about and looking at people's souls? What right did he have to judge them?

What right did he have, calling her _weak?_

Was he _right?_ He'd been pretty square on the mark with everyone else. What if he was right about her soul being weak?

She could her herself trembling, and forced herself to stiffen her resolve. _It doesn't mean anything. Just because you're the weakest here right now doesn't mean you're weak period. You've always known that Maka was a much better meister, and for all his many infuriating qualities Black Star is pretty strong. Just because you're not stronger than them doesn't mean you're not strong._

She wished she could completely convince herself that was the case.

While she was trying to calm her nerves, Soul spoke. "Who do you think you are, old man?" he said angrily.

Stein didn't answer him. "Now that I've collected the necessary initial data from all of you," he said instead, "I think we're ready to begin the experiment."

* * *

Nadia stood outside the apartment door, knocking four, five, six times. "Alecto?" she called out, clutching the basket of cookies in her hands even tighter. "Tempus? It's me, Nadia! I brought cookies?"

No answer.

"They're butterscotch"

Nothing.

Nadia let out a weary sigh and leaned against the door, huddling under her jacket for any semblance of warmth. It was cold out tonight, with an icy wind blustering through the streets. After walking for half an hour in a denim jacket that didn't actually do its job as a jacket, Nadia wanted to see her friends.

After that first day, when Nadia had brought over the caramel chip cookies, she hadn't actually been able to talk to Alecto that much. She'd managed to talk to Tempus a couple times, and he'd said that Alecto was doing a lot more meister work. He'd sounded a little concerned about it, but the way Nadia saw it, the more work that meisters did, the safer the streets were.

Even so, it would be nice to talk to Alecto every once in a while.

"You know," Nadia told herself, "I bet she's off doing meister work right now! Maybe she's off saving more people from gross monsters like that Houdini guy, or whatever his name was." The thought cheered her up a bit. "Yeah! She's just off being a hero. She'll be back by the morning, I'm sure of it! Assuming that it's not a Vegas scenario where they're gone for a whole week." She still didn't understand why Tempus and Alecto didn't want to talk about whatever happened and Las Vegas, but hey, it was their business.

"I'll just come see them tomorrow morning, before they go to school!" she decided. "They've got to be home then! I mean, it's Alecto and Tempus. Whatever they're doing, they _totally_ have it in the bag."

* * *

_"I hope you realize that we're probably screwed."_

"We're not!" Alecto shouted, scrambled to her feet, keeping an eye on Stein. The man had barely paid her a second glance as he'd blocked her attacks and knocked her to the side. His focus was instead on Maka, who was charging towards him with Soul in hand.

Stein had no difficulty in avoiding her attacks, never getting up from his chair and with that same lethargic grin on his face the whole time. "You must be scythe meister Maka," he said. Pressing the heels of his feet against Maka's back, he pushed the pigtailed girl away while simultaneously using her as a springboard as the office chair went rolling back, the back of his skull colliding squarely with Black Star's nose ("Ow, my face!")

_Tick._ "Tempus, six-thirty o'clock, now! We gotta give this guy all we got!" Alecto shouted. As Tempus's spears whirred into position, Alecto ran forward, pulling her arm back and ready to strike with all her strength.

_Tock._ Stein simply spun to face her, booting her in the stomach and sending her flying backwards a few feet before returning his attention to Maka. "Hm," he said, twisting that damned screw in his head. "Let's see, scythe meister Maka… Something's familiar about that name. If I could just put my finger on it…Ah!" he exclaimed in realization. "Your mother was a meister, and you're Spirit's little daughter, aren't you!"

_"Who's Spirit?"_ Soul asked.

"That's what my _father_ was called before he became a Death Scythe," Maka said, spitting out the word "father" like it was a rotten apple.

Tempus spoke, a little bemused. _"Wait, you didn't know that?"_

_"What, and you did? How?"_

_"I hear things."_

"You mean you eavesdrop, you big gossip," Alecto grumbled at her weapon.

"What I wanna know," Maka said, getting to her feet and glaring at Dr. Stein, "is how _you_ know about that."

Dr. Stein seemed deep in thought, with a smile that looked almost nostalgic stretch across his face. "I can still remember, even now. He looked so peaceful in his sleep. Ahh. So," he said, "You are indeed Spirit's darling little daughter. And the daughter of the woman who ended my greatest experiment." His glasses glinted ominously. "I wonder what kind of subject you'd make."

He pushed himself forward, the wheels of the chair clattering against the pavement as he stretched out his hand. Alecto tensed up, but didn't do anything. Maka could hand herself, and indeed, she managed to block the blow with Soul's handle. Or so they thought.

Stein twisted his hand, and a strange energy seemed to pass between him and the scythe. Somehow, whatever it was was enough to knock Maka back, and the stunned look of pain on Maka's face indicated that whatever just happened, it wasn't pleasant. "What… what did he…"

Stein finally stood up, twisting the screw and pushing the chair idly to the side. "Let's see here. How should I begin my experiment." He held up two fingers and made a _snip-snip_ motion with them, miming a pair of shears.

Alecto was scared for Maka. Whatever this Dr. Stein had done had clearly shaken her, and he didn't seem like the sort who would hesitate to do it again.

Indeed, as Maka lunged forward with an angry cry, Dr. Stein just held his hand out calmly. When Maka struck, there was another flash of energy and light, and Soul were knocked away again. Stein grabbed one of Maka's pigtails, yanking her to her feet and holding her still. He tossed Maka's black longcoat to the side and pulled her shirt up a few inches, revealing her stomach.

"You have lovely skin," he said, "simply lovely." He fumbled around in one of his coat pockets and pulled out a black marker. "Where do you think I should insert the knife first?" He drew two long, perpendicular lines across Maka's belly. "Let's see if I can turn your smooth skin into sandpaper."

_Tick._ Alecto lunged forward, using the edge of Tempus's buckler to knock the marker away from Stein's hand, She moved to stand behind him and pressed the tip of Tempus's spear between Stein's shoulder blades. _Tock. "Iuppiter te perdat_ if you try," she growled.

Stein didn't look over his shoulder at her, but his voice indicated amusement. "How interesting. You're very quick on your feet."

"In a manner of speaking," Alecto said. "I've also been known to pack a bit of a punch, so it'd be in your best interests to _let her go._" Bravado was beginning to take over, controlling her actions and her words. She highly doubted that any sort of intimidation tactics she could bust out would work on this piece of human pond scum.

Before she was forced to but her denarii where her mouth was, however, Black Star's voice rang out. "You're about to need a new pair of glasses, bastard!" Alecto turned to see Black Star racing towards them, a dark bruise beginning to form on the side of his mouth where his face and Stein's head had collided. _Tick._ Realizing that she was between a very angry assassin and his target, she dove out of the way, rolling to the ground and turning to face the unfolding scene. _Tock._ Black Star continued. "How could you have already forgotten that I'm here?!"

"Easily," Dr. Stein replied disinterestedly.

Black Star leapt forward. "You're not the only one who can use soul waves to attack without a weapon!"

_Quid?!_

_"What?!"_

"What?"

"_Black Star Big Wave!_" With a mighty cry, Black Star struck, slamming his fist into the center of Stein's back. As he did, a wave of dark energy burst out, sweeping the battleground with a power such that Alecto had to brace herself to avoid getting swept back.

Having pulled free of Stein's grip, Maka fell to the ground. Soul had changed back into his human form, and was staring at the scene with blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. "Amazing," the alabaster-haired boy said in awe.

_Such power…_ Alecto thought. _What the hell kind of attack was that?_

Such an attack should have knocked Stein out cold, but to Alecto's horror, the man barely seemed affected at all. "Hm," he said flatly. "A surprise from the wild boy."

"What the hell is this?" Soul demanded. "Everything we've thrown against him is useless!"

Black Star was shocked by this development too, his expression a mask of distressed confusion. "You deflected my soul attack!" he exclaimed.

"Don't you remember how I checked your soul data when you first arrived here?" Stein said. "When I did that, I familiarized myself with your soul's wavelength, so now I can adjust mine so that they match."

_"He can do that?"_ Tempus said.

"When the wavelengths are the same, they cancel each other out, so your attack is powerless," Stein explained. "You see, in the exact moment you attacked, we temporarily bonded. It's liked the connection between a meister and his weapon. That was a fun experiment, but now it's my turn." His smile turned from lethargic to wicked, and he ran straight up to Black Star. Placing his hands on either side of the boy's head, he struck.

Whatever Stein was doing, it was incredibly powerful, and clearly incredibly agonizing for Black Star. The boy's screams of pain echoed through Alecto's ears, and terror gripped her heart. "He's… he's attacking Black Star's soul directly! He's going to rip his soul to shreds!"

_"What kind of sick bastard is he?"_

Amidst Black Star's screaming, a single horrified voice cried out. "Black Star!" Tsubaki screamed.

"Leave him alone!" Soul shouted.

Stein obliged, ending the attack and letting Black Star's limp form crumple to the ground, blood pooling underneath his head. He wasn't breathing.

Alecto was in shock. Stein had killed him. This sick, deranged doctor had killed Black Star, and he was still smirking about it. Alecto may have disliked Black Star, but she had never wanted to see him dead, especially not in such a horrific manner.

Red filled her vision, and the terror that had taken a python's hold on her heart was replaced with rage. She could hear Tempus's voice, but she couldn't hear what he was saying. _"Foedus es,"_ she said, her voice dripping with hatred. _"Abi in malam rem!"_

_Tick._ She charged, swinging Tempus with the intention of impaling Dr. Stein's throat. But before she could, time reasserted itself, and Dr. Stein grabbed the minute hand spear as it was inches away from his throat, stopped Alecto dead in her tracks. "Ah, I see," he said. "Temporal desynchronization. I thought that's what it was."

Alecto struggled, but Stein had Tempus in a death grip. "Five seconds," she said, desperately trying to hide the shaking in her voice. "Five seconds for me. For you, it would be the blink of an eye." She raised her voice. "I could kill you in five seconds flat!"

Stein seemed amused by that statement. "Temporal desynchronization is a rare skill," he said. "It's a shame you don't know how to use it properly."

Alecto gritted her teeth. "I can make the laws of personal temporal relativity kneel to the ground and kiss my boots. What the hell makes you think I won't bleed you dry before you even have the chance to take in another breath?"

As if he were stating an irrefutable fact of the world, Stein replied, "Because your soul is weak."

That's when the pain started.

* * *

_A/N - Oh, Alecto._

_Yup, Stein definitely gives me the heebie-jeebies, especially when he was drawing on Maka's belly. Like, dude. Don't go talking about how you think the skin of 14-year-old girls is "lovely," that's some creepy shit. Even knowing what I know, something about him just sends shivers down my spine. I do think he's an interesting character from a writing standpoint, though._

_There is a bit to talk about in this chapter. Let's start with Nadia, of course. Oh, Nadia. How little you know. I hoped to convey that Nadia has a bit of hero worship towards Alecto and Tempus since they saved her ass from a serial killer. So she may be overestimating Alecto's skill a little. I also included that scene to remind you all that Alecto is probably a little stressed out from a month of overworking herself. So, beyond Nadia's cameo, what is there to talk about?_

___We could talk about how Kid had been watching the vast majority of events of the last three chapters and is thus technically more aware of Alecto's existence than Alecto is of his. :3 But there's not actually that much to say on that matter._

_We could also talk about Stein's assessment of Alecto and Tempus's souls. But that would be spoilers._

_We could talk about how "something more interesting than a sextet of annoyed teenagers dragging a blue zombie to his house" is probably the best string of words I have ever written or ever will write. But that just speaks for itself._

_So let's just talk about the Latin._

___**Audīs, bucco:** __Audīs is latin for "listen" (second person present tense) while "bucco" means a loud-mouth or a blabber-mouth. So yes, Alecto literally told Dr. Stein "Listen up, blabber-mouth." I love my characters._

**_______Iuppiter te perdat:_**_______ "Jupiter confound you" or "Jupiter damn you." For those who haven't brushed up on their Roman mythology recently, Jupiter was essentially the equivalent of Zeus in the Roman pantheon, being the god of thunder and the sky. I hear they named a planet after him. :P_

**_______Foed________us_**_______** es:** "You're disgusting," or "You're abominable," or "You're detestable" or anything along those lines._

_________**Abi in malam rem:** Copy-pasting from chapter 9's notes: The relatively literal translation is "Go to the devil!" So Alecto's essentially telling Sid to go right (back) to hell._

_________Chapter twelve will be up pretty soon. In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!_

_________- Diana "Nocte"_


	12. Chapter 12

_A/N - I don't have anything to say about this chapter right at this moment except that Writing Is Hard. This whole arc has kind of been a bit mentally exhausting (not un-fun, per se, just tiring), so I'm glad to see it wrapped up in this chapter. Feel free to review and tell me what you think!_

_Speaking of reviews, I would like to thank xXMisatoXx and Superhero17 for leaving reviews! To __xXMisatoXx I would like to say thank you for the lovely comments! I admit, thinking up a good weapon design for the weapon that would eventually become Tempus was a bit of a challenge. Believe it or not, I originally wanted Alecto to wield a shotgun, but I scrapped that idea early on. I knew I didn't want to have Alecto duel wield weapons, because it's stated in canon that dual-wielding as a meister is actually pretty tough (thus why only Kid and Kilik can do it), plus it's sort of become a bit of a cliche in fanfiction at this point from what I can tell. Then at one point my brain was like "what if a spear that was shaped like a clock hand" and I was like "WHOA" and it all spiraled out of control from there._

___To __Superhero17 I say that I do agree that Stein, for all his creepiness, has his moments of absolute hilarity. The beginning of episode 5 is pretty noteworthy. As for Kid, well, he'll show his face soon (I say as we are nearly 50K words into the fic with the only sign of Kid is him being a conversation topic in chapters 5 and 6.)_

_____I would also like to thank SandStromAlchemist for favoriting!_

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Twelve - Graveyard Shift? The Mad Meister's Crooked Gear, Part 2**

* * *

Tempus had never taken an attack straight to the soul before, and certainly not in weapon form. In weapon form, pain wasn't quite as big of a deal. After all, clockwork buckler spears didn't exactly have nerve endings to stimulate or a hunk of gray matter to receive signals of pain from. He could feel a vague sense of discomfort and he still had all his senses, of course, but everything was different when he was a weapon.

So when Stein's soul attack ripped through his consciousness like a bullet, sending excruciating torment through his very being, Tempus's first emotion was confusion, then terror as he realized what exactly was happening. He wanted to stop time outright, to wrench him and his meister away from the pain coursing through their souls. But he couldn't concentrate his on his wavelength enough to use it to slow down their time frame, and even if he could, Stein was close enough where he'd get pulled into the desynchronization, too.

His meister… _Alecto!_ Pushing his way through the pain, he turned his attention to his meister. She had to be okay, she had to be, what was a weapon without a meister to wield him…

Alecto was standing stock still a stunned expression on her face. She didn't even seem to be registering the attack. For the briefest of moment, Tempus hoped that the attack wasn't reaching her, that it was he who was getting to brunt of the pain. He reached out to try and get a sense of her wavelength, to see how she was.

He immediately regretted it. The energy from Stein's attack had let her off easily. The pain she was surely feeling was at least tenfold that of what he was going through. So why the hell wasn't she pulling away, or fighting back, or reacting, or _something? "Ally?!"_

Before Tempus had a chance to comprehend what was going on, Stein tossed Alecto against the wall, the look in his eyes as idle and amused as ever. _Bastard!_

As Alecto slid to the ground, the dazed expression still on her face, Tempus turned into his human form, still aching from the attack. Deliberately placing himself between Alecto and Stein, he knelt down and cupped his meister's face in his hands. "Ally? Ally, say something! Tell me to honk if I speak Latin, tell me to go screw myself in a dead language I don't speak, just talk to me!"

_"D-dēbilis sum."_

"O-okay, that's a start! Now if you could just tell me what that means, we'd be great."

_"Ddēbilis sum, dēbilis sum…"_

"Or you could do that. That's cool too!" Tempus cast a desperate glance over at Maka and Soul. Black Star was… _dead_ (he had himself to think the word), his lifeless head cradled in Tsubaki's arms, and in this state Alecto wasn't hopping back into the fray anytime soon. At this rate, unless Sid had a sudden change of heart, Maka and Soul were their only hope.

Soul seemed eager enough to kick Stein's ass to the East Coast and back, certainly. "Damn you, Stein, you won't get away with this! I'll kill you! Let's go and get him, Maka!"

Maka didn't reply.

"Maka?"

Maka was standing as still as a statue, with a look of pure terror on her face as she stared at something only she could see. "No way," she said, quiet and disbelieving as she fell to her knees.

"What's wrong?" Soul asked.

Maka's awed and horrified gaze didn't waver. "This is impossible." Tempus followed her gaze to see that she was staring at Dr. Stein. But he didn't look any different from normal. Well, "normal" was probably not the word to describe the self-proclaimed scientist, but there still wasn't any noticeable change in him. So what was Maka staring at that scared her so?

"Hm," Stein said, smirking in a way that made Tempus want to punch the screw out of his head. "The little girl can see my soul, huh?"

Tempus remembered that Maka had the ability to see the souls of others, in a manner not too unlike Dr. Stein himself had before the battle started. It was the mad doctor's soul, then, that had caused fear to strike Maka's heart.

"I can't," Maka said, despair lacing her words. "The difference between us is too great."

"Hey, come on!" Soul shouted. "What's wrong with you, Maka?"

"I can't," Maka repeated in reply. "He'll defeat me."

_Damn it!_ Clearly Maka and Soul were not going to be any help at this moment. Tempus returned his focus to Alecto, who had curled up and practically buried her hands into her hair, her ribbon having fallen to the side. She was still mumbling _"Ddēbilis sum, dēbilis sum, dēbilis sum…"_

"Alecto," Tempus said, trying to keep his voice even so that Alecto wouldn't hear how worried he was, "what does that _mean?_"

"_I'm weak!_" Alecto cried. "_I'm weak, Tempus._"

Tempus stared at his meister. How could she think that? "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," he stated.

"It's _not!_" Alecto snapped. "You heard what Stein said. He said I had the weakest soul of everyone here! Everything I've been doing, all the missions I've been taking on… I've just been trying to convince myself that I was a good meister, that I was strong enough to fulfill my duties and not be a disappointment. But I'm not strong. I'm _not._ I can't stand up to Stein, because he's right."

"Are you kidding?" Tempus exclaimed. "You're really going to trust _that_ guy to give an accurate assessment of who you are as a person? Look at him; I wouldn't trust him to give an accurate review of a cheap burger, much less an analysis of someone's soul. And we don't even know if he's telling the truth about what he saw in your soul."

"Why would he lie, though?" Alecto mumbled. "He was right about everyone else's souls, and there's no reason for him to lie about mine."

"Sure there is! Maybe he knew that it would get to you like this and it would keep you from fighting him." Tempus could hear Soul shout something to Maka, but he didn't bother to focus on exactly what. "Maybe he's a sick sadistic son of a bitch who enjoys seeing people being emotionally tormented! Either way, you can't let it get to you like this! Quee owdet adipi-shee-ture!"

A pause. Then, "You're pronunciation is terrible, it's _qui audet adipiscitur_ and it doesn't change anything. I'm still weak, and we're going to get expelled because of it."

Tempus took a deep breath. There was only one thing left that he could say if he had any chance of getting Alecto back on her feet, and while it was true it wasn't exactly very honest. He hoped she wouldn't be _too_ mad at him for it.

"Alecto," he said, "going off on mission after mission without even giving yourself time to rest is not going to make you stronger or a better meister. All its going to do is put so much of your focus on the _idea_ of getting stronger that it hampers you. If you want to get stronger, then you need to stand up and have some damn faith in yourself! You keep talking about how you won't ever stop fighting until you've won. Well, guess what, we haven't won yet, so dust yourself off and let's get going! Because the only thing keeping you down on the ground like that is yourself, and right now right now all you're doing is proving Stein right. All you're doing is _giving up!_"

That got through to her. Alecto's coal-black gaze hardened to black ice, and before Tempus had time to react, she had pulled the both of them to their feet and had slammed Tempus against the wall, glaring at him. The vitality had returned to her expression. "I. Am _not_. Giving up," she growled.

Tempus grinned. "'Course you aren't. That wouldn't be like you, Ally."

Nearby, it seemed that Maka had broke out of her own emotional ditch at the side of the road, and had stood up. "Sorry about that," she said. "I'm better now."

Tempus's grin grew wider. Stein was about to get what was coming to him.

"No problem," Soul said, and transformed into scythe form. Grabbing him, Maka spun the weapon over her head and swung him down, moving into a familiar stance. _They're not really going to…?_

_"Let's go, Soul Resonance!"_

They really _were_. After all that had happened, after a failed attempt earlier, they really were going to try and resonate their souls again. Tempus was almost impressed by their gusto as we watched the visible soul energy emanating from the weapon and meister grow brighter and stronger. The two were putting all they had into the own resonance. If they succeeded, Stein would be dust.

Stein, who had previously just been standing there patiently, suddenly looked incredibly interested. "You're putting everything into one hit?" he said. Then his entire demeanor changed, and there was some actual emotion in his voice. "Come on! Let's see exactly how much your souls can handle!"

"The legendary super skill of the scythe meister!" Maka shouted as she pulled Soul back, the latter's blade practically exploding with soul energy and expanding into the same massive, double-headed scythe from before. _"Witch Hunter!"_

She swung the scythe, the blade cleaving through the concrete ground like a hot knife through butter. For a second, Tempus thought that the same was going to happen to Stein, but to the shock of everyone there, he managed to block the blow, pinning the blade of energy between his hands and holding it in place inches from his face. _No way!_ Tempus thought. _Can he really do that?_

From there, it seemed like a battle of well, with Maka pushing the blade towards Stein and Stein keeping it from hitting him. Tempus hoped that Maka would be the one to get the upper hand.

"You can control the Witch Hunter, too," Stein said, and he almost sounded a little bit awed. Then he continued, his next words making the blood drain from Tempus's face. "But I'm afraid your skills are too rough!"

Witch Hunter shattered.

Soul went flying, clattering to the ground rather unceremoniously. Maka fell as well, her breathing shallow and ragged. "Tempus!" Alecto hissed. Tempus nodded in agreement and switched into his weapon form, and he could feel Alecto tense up and prepare to leap into the fray.

Back to the unaffected self he was before, Dr. Stein ambled over to Maka's form,his footsteps splitting the silence that had erupted. "You managed to remain conscious," he remarked as he kneeled down beside the light-haired meister.

In a flash of light, Soul returned to his human form again, crouching protectively over Maka. "Back away," he snapped. "I won't let you touch my meister."

"In that case," Stein said, reaching his hand out, "I'll start with you."

_Tick tock. "Ego te provoco,"_ Alecto snarled, pointing the tip of Tempus's minute hand at the Stein's back, right between his shoulder blades like she had previously done. "You wouldn't even have time to blink, doctor. Remember that." There was no shaking in her voice, just barely-contained rage boiling beneath the surface.

"Hm." Tempus could practically hear the doctor's smirk. "So, you're still willing to fight."

"_Aut vincere aut mori,_" Alecto replied. "Take your pick."

Stein simply continued reaching out for Soul. Alecto pulled her arm back, and Tempus readied himself for what would no doubt be the unpleasant experience of getting stabbed into the bony flesh of a madman. Alecto gritted her teeth, and…

And Stein patted Soul on the head.

"You've earned a passing grade. Good job."

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

_"Huh?"_

"Huh?"

"Your extra lessons have been completed," Stein continued, a smile on his face. "You gave up your own body to protect your meister. And you," he said, giving Alecto a quick glance over his shoulder, "were forced to confront your weakness, and fought anyway. That's all you needed to earn a pass from me." Alecto stood there unresponsively, staring at Stein in a confusion that Tempus shared.

"Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear the first time," Soul said. "I'll say it again: _huh?_"

"This was all planned out by Lord Death," Dr. Stein explained. "He asked me to do him a favor. He wanted me to help you with these extra lessons."

"B-but if you were in on it, why did you kill Black Star?" Soul shouted, pointing to Black Star's lifeless body.

Only, to the surprise of everyone, it wasn't lifeless. In fact, Black Star was very much alive, his head still in Tsubaki's lap and his eyes focused on Stein with a glower. "I bet you think you're a funny guy, huh?" the blue-haired assassin shouted, his voice still strained from whatever Stein had did to his soul.

_He's alive?_ "Oh, bull!" Tempus exclaimed as he changed back into human form. "You can't tell me that all the crap you just put us through was just part of a remedial lesson orchestrated by Lord Death!" Tempus knew that life as a DWMA student was dangerous, but there had to be lines in the sand, right?

"But what about Sid the zombie?!" Soul demanded.

Tempus had never thought that he would see a zombie look sheepish before, but sure enough, that was what he was looking at. Cross another thing off the ol' bucket list, he supposed. "Ah, yeah, sorry about all this," Sid said. "Back when I was alive, I was definitely a man who would never tell a lie. But a lot of things have changed since then."

"Oh, you don't say!" Soul said. "Then what the hell was the point of all this? To see if you could scare us to death?"

"This is messed up," Alecto moaned, falling back onto the floor. "This is seriously messed up, I can't even described how messed up this is…"

"It was just a test," Stein said, "but I confess that it was fun scaring you kids like that!" He grinned maniacally. "You just have seen your faces!"

"You've got to be kidding me," Tempus said.

Alecto ran her hands through her hair. "I speak two different languages and there aren't any words in either of them to describe just how _messed up_ this is."

Stein sat back down in his chair and spun it, twirling about like a deranged top. "Okay, everyone! I'm sure you're all tired! Why don't you spend the night in my laboratory!"

_"That's a big fat no!"_ the students shouted in unison

"I need some tea," Alecto mumbled.

"Yeah, I think we all could," Tempus replied, pulling his meister up off the floor. "Come on, let's go."

* * *

"That man was seriously sadistic."

"He was the literal worst and I pray that I never have to see him again," Tempus said as he dropped the tea bags into the teacups full of scalding hot water. He'd taken over making the tea for Alecto after she'd nearly dropped the teapot due to shaking fingers. They'd only gotten home half an hour ago, and the events of the night still weighed on their minds like a bag of wet sand.

"You know what the worst part about it all is, though? Lord Death actually thought it was a good idea. The Grim Reaper looked at Dr. Stein and thought 'yeah, let's throw a bunch of teenagers at this guy and let them get emotionally broken for the sake of _remedial lessons._'" Tempus scoffed. "Remedial lessons. At least we passed."

"I'd have taken Vegas again over that," Alecto said, practically sprawling in the kitchen chair. "I'd have taken a hundred Vegases. Is 'Vegases' even a word?"

"I think so."

"Hm." Alecto was quiet for a few seconds. "Hey, Tempus? I think I'm going to take a break from taking on mission. Not a very long one, I just… you were right. I do need to rein it in a little."

"Yeah, you do. You've been stressing yourself out, Ally, it's not healthy."

"I realize that now. I don't think what Stein said about my soul would have gotten to me as much as I did if I hadn't been obsessing over my worth as a meister over the past month. What I need is to find something to take my mind off the whole mess."

"Well," Tempus said, grabbing the teacups in front of him and handing one to Alecto, "I can say with complete certainty that you are a great meister, even if you tend to go a little overboard, and I wouldn't trade you for anyone in the world. I promise."

Alecto smiled at him. "Thanks, Tempus." She took a small sip of the tea and grimaced. "Tempus?"

"Yeah?"

"You are my best friend and I love you dearly, but you make a _terrible_ cup of tea."

* * *

_A/N - Oh, Alecto, I'm sure you'll find something to distract you from your myriad of self-esteem issues soon enough. Maybe next chapter, even._

_On a note that is absolutely not related to that last statement in any way whatsoever what are you even talking about, I would just like to remind you all that while all of this is going down, Kid is sprawled out in the middle of some hallway or another, contorting himself into ridiculous poses on the ground because of toilet paper. Oh, Kid. Never change._

_I have to admit, this episode did make me raise an eyebrow at Lord Death's teaching methods. I mean, I get that DWMA is Not Your Average School, and that's all fine and dandy, but was that really his idea for remedial lessons? And why didn't he tell Kid what was really going on? It's not like Kid's knowledge of the true nature of the lesson would have affected the outcome in any way. What's up with that, Death?_

_Oh, well. If Kid had known the truth, I suppose he wouldn't have enrolled in DWMA, and everything would be turning out very, very differently. Yay plot convenience!_

_Do you know what else is yay? Latin. Latin is totally yay. Yay Latin!_

**_Dēbilis sum:_**_ Means "I am weak."_

___**Ego te provoco:** Literally means "I provoke you." Is basically synonymous with "I dare you." Clearly Alecto doesn't know that a dare doesn't count unless it's a double dog dare!_

_____**Aut vincere aut mori:** Means "Victory or death," and admittedly would have made a much better motto for Alecto than the phrase she does use. Ah, well. Hindsight is 20/20, after all._

_____Chapter thirteen will be up soon. In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review telling me what you think!_

_____- Diana "Nocte"_


	13. Chapter 13

_A/N - Oh, crap, I'm so sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out (I say, posting about 5000 words after a three-day gap). Christmastime is rolling around and everything's been really hectic because of it, so I didn't have as much writing time over the weekend. Carols, cookies, Christmas trees, fun times! Speaking of fun times, you know what's fun? Reviews! Leave me a review to tell me how I did with this chapter!_

_Speaking of reviews, thank you to turtledove237 and for favoriting, and I thank turtledove237, SandStromAlchemist, and Carolinefdq for reviewing! To __SandStromAlchemist, I say that I sure am glad that you like Alecto's latent crush on one Miss Nakatsukasa, because there's gonna be quite a bit of that in this arc! I must say, I've never seen much F!OC fanfiction where said F!OC had a positive, significant relationship with a canon female character. Not that such fics don't exact, but I'd like to see more of it. We need more lady-lady bonds and fanfiction that passes the Bechdel test up in here._

___To __Carolinefdq, I say thank you for the review and if the review weren't two days old I'd totally be telling you "Go to bed, silly goose." :P_

_______To turtledove237, I say thank you for the review and it's wonderful to know that people enjoy my fanfiction!_

_______Oh, and another thing: I made a cover for this fanfiction! I was tired of seeing purple space stuff beside the fic as if purple space stuff was in any way relevant to Tempus Fugit, so I cobbled together a relatively decent-looking cover instead. I may be a terrible artist, but I am damn good at using photo manipulation software to create decent-looking manips!_

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen - A Boy to Remember - The Son of Death's First Day at the Academy, Part 1**

* * *

When all the facts were laid out, there was no reason for Alecto to be as upbeat as she was that morning.

Through some terrible miracle of some sort, Dr. Stein had been assigned as the new teacher of Class Crescent Moon, and they had spent every day since that development dissecting creature after creature. If Alecto had to identify the dorsal aorta of one more bullfrog, she was going to flip Dr. Stein out of his office chair.

She hadn't taken on any new missions in quite a while, and the last time she had done this the lack of activity had nearly driven her insane, and that had only been a few days. By all rights, she should be completely off the walls by this point.

Also, Black Star still existed. Yes, she had gained a bit of respect for his combat skills during their fight with Sid, but there was still the matter of him being an arrogant, largely incompetent snot with a partner who was way too good for him.

So what was making Alecto so happy? Was it the weather? She doubted it. The day was beautiful, to be sure, with the clear azure of the sky completely free of clouds and the large, warm sun guffawing overhead, but in the end it really was not different from most days. Death city was located in the middle of the Nevada desert, after all; it wasn't like there was an abundance of rainy days to be had.

No, Alecto was sure that the thing that had gotten her spirits so high was tea.

She couldn't believe that she had never thought of brewing the tea _inside_ the thermos before. She supposed that she always subconsciously assumed that because the tea wasn't freshly brewed when she got around to drinking it, it wouldn't be as good.

But she was dead wrong. The thermos has perfectly preserved the flavor inside its impermeable casing, and had actually probably strengthened the flavor of the liquid inside it. It was the best idea ever, and the moment she had realized that she had sworn to herself that she would never go anywhere without a thermos full of tea.

As such, Alecto figured that there wasn't much that could quell the spring in her step that morning as she jogged down the street, a thermos of tea in each hand. Tempus had noticed her unusually good mood, too, and he remarked, "You look like you're about to spontaneously break into song. Did you have a really good dream or something?" He had his jacket slung over his shoulder and his sleeves rolled up to his

"No," Alecto said. "Just tea."

"Ah, I should have guessed," Tempus said, quickening his pace to keep up with the young meister. He was quiet for a few seconds before speaking again. "Do you know what really bugs me? Like, a lot?"

"Non-sequiturs?"

"Oh, hah, hah." Tempus shook his head. "No, see, here's the thing. Sid's technically not really _dead_ anymore, right? I mean, he's dead, but he's still all _active_ and the like. So why can't he go back to teaching class Crescent Moon? Why'd we end up with _Stein_ as a replacement for a guy who's still perfectly eligible for teaching?"

Alecto shrugged. "Maybe Lord Death needs Sid for specialized missions. I imagine there are some aspects of life, so to speak, in which being undead would be have its benefits."

Tempus didn't look quite so sure about that. "Or maybe Lord Death's just got a twisted sense of humor," he grumbled. Then a grin crossed his features. "Oh! Speaking of the Grim Reaper, have you heard the rumors? I know you're not really interested in rumors and the like, being the… whatever the opposite of a social butterfly is… that you are, but _everyone's_ been talking about. It's been sort of hard to miss."

"Uh, well, _nōn._ I can't actually say that I've heard anything." Alecto had never really been one for gossip, and she wasn't nearly enough of a people person to pick up any of that sort of thing in idle conversation. Most of what she heard, she heard from Tempus.

Of course, with Tempus being the eavesdropper that he was, she heard a lot of things from him. Alecto glanced up at him to see that he had a very eager expression on his face. "Oh, go on, I can tell you want to tell me. What rumors have you heard?"

Tempus's smile widened "There's a new meister joining the DWMA today."

"And?"

"And what?"

"You wouldn't be this excited over someone who was just a new student. Who are they?"

"Well," Tempus said, steepling his fingers together, "I can't say that that I am a hundred percent certain on this front, I mean, rumors are rumors after all. But these particular rumors say that this student isn't like the others. People are saying that he's Lord Death's son."

Alecto stopped in her tracks, dark brow furrowing incredulously. "Wait, seriously? That Death the Kid guy, the one who took on the Pharaoh mission?"

"That's the one."

_"Non credo tū."_

"Now, my Latin is a little rusty, but I think you just told me that I'm full of bullshit."

"Not in so many words. But yeah, I don't think those rumors are true at all. Lord Death's son is supposed to be a Grim Reaper like he is, right? Why would a Grim Reaper need to attend the Academy?" It wasn't as if a Grim Reaper would need to make his own Death Scythes, and she couldn't imagine that he'd learn anything that he didn't already know by way of being the son of Death. "I just can't see that happening. I'm not going to rule out the idea of us getting a new student, but Lord Death's kid? Doubt it."

Tempus shrugged. "Hey, that's what I heard. I dont know where the rumors started, or how true they are, but I do know that everyone seems pretty sure that it's all true. And besides, everyone was right about Sid coming back to life, right? There's no reason that they wouldn't be right about this one."

"Tempus," Alecto said, "I think that rumor about Sid was started for the sake of those extra lessons."

"Oh." Tempus was silent. "Well, it could be true. We just don't know."

"I still doubt it," Alecto said. "Come on. I wanna find Tsubaki before classes start."

* * *

Tsubaki and Maka were both standing in front of the mission board, making idle conversation as they waited for the bell to ring. To Alecto's surprise, neither Soul Eater nor Black Star were with the two girls, though in the case of the latter she considered the absence to be a blessing. "Tsubaki! Maka!" she called out as she and Tempus approached, her boots clacking against the hard tiles of the hall floor.

"Hello, Alecto, Tempus!" Tsubaki said, turning to face the two of them as they drew near. Despite the smile she gave them, the expression on her face bore a hint of sadness. Alecto was about to ask what was wrong when Maka spoke.

"Have you two heard about what people have been saying?"

"The rumors about the new student?" Alecto replied. "I've heard enough. There's a few details I don't really belie-we though. Uh, _believe._" She turned a little red when she realized that her accent had slipped again. _Vae._ She thought she was getting better at reining that in. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh," Maka said, "well, it's just that we've been hearing about it all around school. When Black Star and Soul heard about it, they ran off. Did you two run into those two idiots?"

Tempus shrugged. "No idiots on our way up. Granted, we might have missed them in the halls or something along those lines. It's a big school, after all."

Alecto noticed that Tsubaki looked somewhat crestfallen at the mention of her meister, so she decided to divert the train of conversation to another track. "Tsubaki," she said, her cheeks further reddening as she held out one of the thermoses, "I made you some tea! I brewed it just before we left for school, so it should still be good! I-it's orange blossom."

Tsubaki looked equal parts surprised and grateful as she accepted the thermos. "Oh, thank you, Alecto!" She took a sip, and an expression of confusion flitted across her gentle features. "Huh. This doesn't taste like orange blossom…"

"Wh…? Oh!" Alecto exclaimed as she realized what she meant. "Oh, g-gosh, I think I gave you my vanilla tea by accident! Oh, gosh, _m-mē miseret, mē miseret!_" she stammered as she took the termos in Tsubaki's hand and replaced it with the one she'd intended to give her. "I knew I should have labeled these. Or bought thermoses that were different colors…"

"It's fine," Tsubaki said reassuringly, taking a sip of the orange blossom. She smiled. "This is good!" She still sounded a little sad, but less so than before, and that made Alecto happy. Tsubaki was a good person. She didn't deserve to be sad.

Above the four of them rang the familiar_ ding dong dong ding_ of the bell that alerted students that it was time to head to their respective classes. Alecto winced. Ever since their fight with Sid, she'd always been a bit set on edge by the noise. Even knowing that it had all been a set up, she still couldn't shake the memories of Sid's singsong mockery of the bell as he knocked them about with a gravestone.

The four of them headed to class alongside the other students of Crescent Moon, and Alecto decided to try and listen in on the hushed conversations around her. Sure enough, Tempus and Maka had been right in that the new student was pretty much the biggest topic of conversation. She didn't _get it_. Wasn't there anything else for them to talk about?

Tuning out the buzz of words around her, Alecto took a sip of her tea, the taste of vanilla tickling her tongue and the heat warming her throat. As she drank her tea, she had to admit that curiosity was biting at her a little. She almost considered going to try and track down the source of these rumors, but then she remembered the last time she had skipped class to get to the bottom of some mystery everyone was talking about, she had ended up exhausted and with extra laps to complete in P.E.

She didn't want any more extra laps. She didn't want any laps, period.

So she shoved that curiosity into a little box at the back of her mind and shoved it away, heading to class and trying to ignore it as best she could.

* * *

"Tempus, you've been doing that for a week. I don't think Dr. Stein is going to be fooled."

"It's not about him being fooled. I'm not trying to hide from him, I just don't want to see his stupid jerk face. Ugh, I still can't believe they let him teach here," Tempus grumbled from his place underneath his desk.

Alecto sighed. "You know, I don't think Lord Death would let him teach here if he didn't trust him," she pointed out. While she hated Dr. Stein with a furious passion, she knew that she wasn't in any position to question the judgement of the Grim Reaper himself. If he thought that Stein would make a good teacher

"Wait, since when did you become a supporter of Dr. Stein? I thought you hated him since he, you know, _used your biggest fear and insecurity against you and threw you against a wall_."

"I _do_ hate him. Given the opportunity, I'd gladly toss him off the nearest balcony," Alecto said. "But I'm not going to hide from him. I'm going to look him in the eye and think '_te odi, 'te odi_' as loudly as I can and hope the pure strength of my resentment reaches him and hopefully makes his screw fly right out of his head."

"Yeah, that's not going to work, Ally."

"Yeah, I know."

As if talking about the man had inadvertently summoned him, the classroom door opened, and Dr. Stein rolled in on his office chair. Behind him, he dragged something large and square and covered by a large cloth. Whatever it was, something was moving in it, and Alecto couldn't help but feel a bit of hope. Maybe they were actually going to learn about fighting instead of the internal anatomy of the average amphibian?

Around her, there was a low murmured of confusion as Dr. Stein rolled to a stop behind his desk. "What should our lesson be today, class?" he said in a clearly rhetorical manner. At least, Alecto assumed it was rhetorical. He looked like he had something already planned out, so what was the point of asking? Trying to be as unnoticeable as possible (she technically wasn't supposed to eat or drink in the classroom), she took a small sip of her tea, watching the scene unfold in front of her with a confused gaze.

"I've got it," Stein said without waiting for an answer from the students, "why don't we do another dissection lab?"

The response was an almost unanimous groan, and Alecto immediately began calculating whether it was possible to use a desynchronization to give Stein a good beating with that office chair had not have anyone notice it was her. "Yeah, uh, Dr. Stein, if I could point something out?" Maka said, raising her hand somewhat. "Ever since you became our teacher, all we've done is dissect animals. Every day."

"Oh, but you see, Maka," Stein said, his glasses glinting ominously despite the lack of any sort of bright, contrasting light. Alecto was starting to think that his glasses just produced their own luminescence. "Today will be different. This time our specimen is infinitely more interesting than a mouse or frog."

_Quid?_ Alecto thought. She figured that frogs and mice were sort of the standard for dissections, and what could possibly make the now-dull procedure any less so.

"Are you ready for it?" Despite the flat tone of his voice, there was a definite flourish in the way Dr. Stein yanked the cloth off the rectangular shape. Said shape turned out to be a cage, and inside stood a very nervous-looking white bird with a red face, a long neck, and a droopy-looking black beak. Whatever species of bird it was, it certainly didn't look like your average pigeon or sparrow. "Today we'll be poking around the insides of this little guy here," Stein said, gesturing to the bird. "A rare species of cuckoo. Endangered, I believe."

If Alecto had been drinking her tea as he'd spoken those last three words, she'd have surely spit her drink over her desk. She was no expert on the ethics surrounding endangered animals and the treatment of them, but she was certain that there was some sort of rule against dissecting one for class.

And what the hell did this cuckoo bird have to do with hunting Kishin and witches?

The rest of the class seemed to be just as shocked at this development as she did. "Um, Dr. Stein, I don't think we can dissect that," Maka said. "It's _really_ rare, nearly extinct!"

The borderline maniacal grin on Stein's face merely widened as he turned to face the feathered creature. "All the more reason to dissect one before the entire species dies out."

The bird liked it was about to drop dead from sheer terror.

"He's seriously crazy," Alecto heard Maka say quietly. "He must be _insane._" Alecto found herself agreeing.

Dr. Stein's pale gaze swept over the row that Tsubaki and Maka were sitting in, his focus lingering on the two empty chairs. "Tsubaki, Maka, why don't I see Soul and Black Star up there with you? Are they planning to come to class?" Alecto noticed Tsubaki sigh despondently at the mention of her meister.

"They're probably skipping," Maka replied. "Again. Those two idiots are hopeless," she muttered under her breath.

Again, Alecto found herself agreeing. Not because the two were skipping class; hell, at this point she wanted to start skipping class too, it wasn't like they were learning anything useful from cutting apart an endangered bird. It wasn't even that she thought that Soul was hopeless. She actually didn't mind Soul. No, she just thought that Black Star was hopeless enough for the both of them and then some.

"Jeez," Maka continued, "if they wanna be together so much, maybe they should be partners. What do you think, Tsubaki?"

Alecto was sitting behind Tsubaki and Maka as usual, so she wasn't able to see the statuesque girl's face and pinpoint when exactly her demeanor did a complete one-eighty, but suddenly she had grabbed Maka by the front of her shirt and was shaking her back and forth like a maraca. "No, that could never happen!" Tsubaki shouted. "Do you hear me?! Never never never!"

"I'm not sure what you're so worried about, Tsubaki," Alecto said, her mouth forming words before her brain could judge their wisdom as she leaned forward, practically sprawled across the desk. Tsubaki stopped shaking Maka and looked up at the pink haired meister, who kept speaking. "You're pretty much _amazing_ in every way. Anyone who would choose Soul over you is a complete fool in my book."

Tsubaki's cheeks turned a little pink at Alecto's words, but apart from that her expression didn't change. She still looked sad. Alecto wasn't sure what had happened to make the chain scythe feel the way she felt, but she suspected a certain blue-haired meister was behind it. Subsequently, she also suspected she would have to be delivering a few temporally desynchronized fists to the face in the near future.

From the front of the class, Stein spoke, apathetic to Tsubaki's blatant distress. "I guess they'll miss out on the excitement," he said. "I'm sure that you are all aware by now, but a very interesting new student will be joining our class today."

From his spot under the desk, Tempus hissed, "Hah! Told you!"

"_Tace,_" Alecto replied.

"Well, with that out of the way, let's get on with the lesson," Stein said. "Oh, and Tempus, hiding won't do you any good. I still know you're there."

There was a loud _thump_ as the golden-haired boy jumped, his head banging against the underside of the desk. "_Ow!_ I mean, uh, y-yes, sir!" He crawled out of his hiding spot and sat down in his chair, glowering at the students who were giving him odd looks before turning to Alecto with a smug_ I-told-you-so-did-I-not-tell-you-about-the-rumors-I-believe-I-did_ grin.

"_Tace,_" she repeated.

"I didn't say anything."

"You were thinking it."

The lesson began, with Stein spending a good hour or more lecturing the process of immobilizing the cuckoo and plucking its feathers, exposing the bare skin underneath. The cuckoo, Alecto noted, was still alive and conscious during all of this, paralyzed with fear the whole time. Alecto wondered if Stein had truly earned the title of "doctor," or if the truth was that he'd never spent a single day at medical school.

She also wondered if he knew the difference between a _dissection_ and a _vivisection._

Regardless, Alecto found herself unable to focus on the lesson anyway. Her thoughts kept drifting to other matters. Namely, this transfer student.

So, the rumors about there being a new student were correct, and if the way Stein had phrased his announcement was and clue, the other half of the rumor was true. The son of Lord Death really had enrolled in the DWMA. Alecto mentally combed through the reasons that a Grim Reaper could possibly have for joining the Academy, but each of them was just as implausible as the last. She didn't actually know anything about this Death the Kid fellow, and thus couldn't really determine why he'd done what he'd done.

Well, she would get to know him soon enough, she supposed. She did wonder why he wasn't in class now, though. Unless his schedule was somehow different than theirs, he should have been there when the bell rang like everyone else. Unless he was running late? Did Grim Reapers run late? She'd only met one, but she'd always figured that Lord Death was never early or late, and simply just arrived precisely when he meant to.

Her wayward wonders were interrupted by a strange sound coming from outside, echoing into the classroom through the round windows lined up along the classroom hall. The sound was a little bit familiar. Almost like…

"Are those gunshots?" Tempus echoed her thoughts, leaning his chair back on its hind legs and looking over his shoulder, eying the windows with a bemused gaze.

A couple of the back row kids stood up and moved to the windows to see what was going on. "Dr. Stein!" one of the kids, a boy with chin-length hair and a beret, said. "It's Soul and Black Star! They're fighting someone outside."

"Raise your hand if you're surprised," Tempus muttered. Alecto promptly pulled her hands off her desk at let them hang limply at her sides.

Maka stood up. "Excuse me, Dr. Stein?" she called out. "There's a rule about two meisters dueling on school grounds. It states that in order for the duel to continue there must be a professor there to witness it."

Stein, who held a scalpel in each hand and was about to cut into the strapped-down and batshit terrified cuckoo on his desk, looked a little inconvenienced about the statement implicit in Maka's words. "I hate to stop her, but it can't be help," he said, stabbing the scalpels in the wood of the curved desk. "We'll have to postpone the dissection."

For reasons that Alecto couldn't _possibly_ place, no one seemed particularly torn up over that little announcement.

"As Soul and Black Star's partners, Maka and Tsubaki, please come along with me." He sat back down in his chair… why he insisted on always sitting in it backwards was a mystery for the ages… and rolled off. "Everyone else, study something."

Maka and Tsubaki followed Stein out of the classroom. As soon as the door closed behind them, half a dozen students rush forward to free the poor bird from its restraints while the rest of them crowded around the windows to try and see what was going on. The only two students who didn't get up were Alecto and Tempus, who exchanged a glance with one another. It was a glance of an unspoken agreement, a glance of mutual curiosity and disinterest in following Dr. Stein's command to study. Without speaking a word, the two of them reach out towards each other and locked hands, and with a familiar noise, time shifted.

_Tick._

* * *

_Tock._ "So, what do you think he's like?"

_Tick._ "Who?"

_Tock._ "The cabbage man. Who do you think I'm talking about, Ally? Death the Kid!"

_Tick._ "Oh." Alecto thought for a second. "I don't know, not reall. I imagine he's tall. Thin. Older than us, maybe? Probably resembles his father a bit."

_Tock._ "You think he has a skull face?" Tempus asked

Tick. "Oh, for Pete's sake, Tempus, I don't know!" Alecto snapped. "And what makes you think that it's Death's son that Soul and black Star are fighting, anyways?"

_Tock._ "Well, it's obvious, isn't it? Black Star's always talking about how he'll conquer the gods, and now here's a fresh young god, ripe for the picking!" _Tick._ Tempus paused, brow furrowing. "That came out wrong. The point is, there've been rumors about this guy going about the school for a couple days now. Black Star's ego probably couldn't handle that and he went off to go challenge the guy to the duel." _Tock._ "You have to agree, that is something that Black Star would do."

_Tick._ "That does sound like Black Star," Alecto agreed.

_Tock. Tick._ "Crap, that was Stein and the others. I'm positive they noticed us. I told you we should have gone to a balcony to watch instead."

_Tock._ "And I told you, I'm not interested in being sneaky about all of this. I want to see what's going on, and I don't want a bird's eye view of it, either. I don't really care if Stein saw us. He probably figured out what we were going to do the moment he left."

_Tick._ "Speak for yourself," Tempus said." I'm not exactly eager to end up on the bad side of a guy whose entire existence practically screams 'look at me, I'm a mad scientist.'"

_Tock._ "Hush, we're almost outside." In fact, the massive front doors leading to the outside of the school were just in front of them. Going from a jog to a run, Alecto bolted forward, throwing herself forward and slamming her entire weight against the door, because that was what it was going to take to get the damn thing open. Even so, it only opened slowly and just enough for her and Tempus to slip outside. The two of them moved forward to get a better look at the scene that was unfolding in front of the school.

That's when she saw him.

* * *

_A/N - Do you hear that? That's me laughing evilly. Enjoy it. :) And people wonder why authors use cliffhangers so much. The answer? It's fun as hell._

_I've always wanted a reason to impart my knowledge on the difference between dissection and vivisection to some unsuspecting soul. A dissection is the cutting up of a dead body for scientific observation and education. A vivisection is basically the same thing, but the subject in question is very much alive, which is what the lab regarding the cuckoo would have been if not for divine intervention (that phrase is surprisingly fitting in this scenario)._

_Now that I've thoroughly disturbed you all, can I just say that the bird in the episode looks nothing like a member of the cuckoo family? The cuckoo family are a family of tree-dwelling birds, and I don't think the bird in the episode can even fly, much less nest in a tree._

_Science aside, on to the Latin!_

_**Nōn:** Means "No." I'm not sure why I included this, I feel like it should speak for itself._

_**Non credo tū:** Means "I do not believe you." So, yeah, Alecto's pretty much just saying that she thinks Tempus is full of shit. Oh, Alecto. If only you knew. :3_

___**Mē miseret:** Literally means "I'm sorry," it's an apology for a mistake made. Like a tea mix-up. The most heinous of crimes.  
_

_____**Te odi:** Means "I hate you."_

_______**Tace:** Means "Shut up."_

_______Chapter 14 should be up soon, if Holiday madness doesn't get in the way of everything. In the mean time, feel free to leave a review telling me what you think!_

_______- Diana "Nocte"_


	14. Chapter 14

_A/N - Ah, man, Christmastime. It sure is a time. A time of chaos and significantly reduced writing time, joy of joys! I do hope you lovely folk had a wonderful Christmas, and if you don't celebrate Christmas, well, I hope you had a really great Wednesday! I hope you all have a great every day, because you all are great._

_Now that the tinsel and the noel hubbub is over, I should be able to pick the pace back up a little. Of course, I got the blu-ray of Puella Magi Madoka Magicka that I want to sit down and watch with my sister, so it might take a couple more days to get back into the daily grind. I'd have updated this sooner, but I accidentally lost about 500-600 words of work because my computer got unplugged by accident and I needed a few hours to calm myself down so I didn't throw something at a wall. Leave me a review and let me know if the wait was worth it._

_I'd like to thank Superhero17 and KaseyKay10 for reviewing! I'm afraid I can't respond to your reviews in depth without going into spoiler territory, but I can respond with this: :)_

_Oh, we've also breached the 50k word mark! Go us! Soon enough we'll be at the 100k word mark, then the 200k word mark... don't look at me like that, it took us 50k words just to meet Death the Kid. This is probably going to be a whopper of a fic by the time I'm done, folks._

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen - A Boy to Remember - The Son of Death's First Day at the Academy, Part 2**

* * *

"Well," Tempus said, "He's thin. One out of four isn't bad."

To say that Death the Kid didn't look like Alecto thought he would was a vast understatement. The boy looked to be around her chronological age or at most a year older, and he was short, about as short as Alecto herself was. Tempus was correct in that he was very thin as well. Pale skinned and black-haired, the boy wore a very well-kept black suit that had four white rectangles running down the center of the jacket's front and three white rectangles on each shoulder. What stood out the most, though, were the three snow white stripes that cut through on half of his hair.

He wasn't what she'd been expecting, surely, but she didn't find herself disappointed in the slightest. There was _something_ about him that made Alecto believe that yes, this boy was the son of Lord Death himself.

Maybe it was the fact that he was pretty much kicking Soul and Black Star's respective asses without even having to move from his spot. He had his arms outstretched, with a pistol gripped tightly in each hand. He was holding the pistols upside down, Alecto noted, but it didn't seem to affect his aim at all, as his shots at his opponent's feet were enough to keep them darting about in a panic. None of them seemed to notice that Alecto and Tempus were there.

"You were right," Alecto said quietly. "It seems that Black Star did end up challenging Death the Kid to a duel. But what's _Soul_ doing out here?"

"I don't know," Tempus replied, sweeping his bangs away from his face so as to get a better view of the duel. "But I'm sure I'm sure the reasoning is something stupid. The short shit knows that that's not how you hold a gun, right?"

"Short shit? What does that make me?" Alecto asked.

"Oh, you're a short shit, too." Tempus propped his elbow up on Alecto's head, the difference in their height becoming even more apparent. "But you're _my_ short shit."

"Right." Alecto fought the urge to roll her eyes like a bratty eleven-year-old. "_Tace,_ I want to see what happens next."

At this point, the fight was pretty decidedly one-sided and not very fight-y at all, and it seemed that Black Star and Soul were aware of it, to their credit. "We can't even get close to the guy!" Black Star shouted after another bout of acrobatics in an attempt to dodge the shots.

"What was that?" The black-haired boy replied, his voice bearing a sharp cadence to it. "You're looking for a more up close and personal fight? Fine by me!" He jumped several feet into the air, turning heels over head and bringing his foot solidly down to Black Star's face, that latter only barely managing to block it with his wrists.

"_Quod incredibile!_" Alecto exclaimed under her breath. Even if Black Star had managed to block the blow, that was still a damn good move. She didn't know much about this kid, but she was starting to like him. At the very least, she could respect the talent that he clearly possessed.

The kid landed on his feet effortlessly just as Soul Eater rushed forward. One of Soul's arms was morphed into his scythe form's blade, and it was that arm that he swung at Death the Kid, who simply blocked it with one of the pistols in his hands. "Damn it!" Soul swore.

It was then that Alecto saw why the kid held his guns the way he did; he was clearly proficient in close-quarters combat, if the ease with which he deflected Soul's attack was any indication, and holding the guns upside-down probably allowed them to double as melee weapons. She still didn't quite comprehend how he was able to pull the triggers with his pinkies, but maybe Grim Reapers were capable of doing that.

But the kid wasn't done yet. Without pausing, he brought the other pistol around and pressed the muzzle against Soul's torso.

"What the hell?!" Black Star shouted.

"_Quid?!_" Alecto said. He wasn't really about to…

He pulled the trigger. A strange black energy with red lightning arcing through it shot from the barrel of the gun through Soul's body, passing through him like a hot toothpick passed through soft butter. The force of the energy knocked Soul back a bit, the white-haired weapon falling limp to the ground.

"Holy crap," Tempus said, his eyes wide. "He just _shot_ Soul!"

"Is he…?"

After a moment of tense silence in which Alecto weighed the pros and cons of desynchronizing and running in to find out just what the kid had done, Soul clutched his midsection and rolled on his back, he voice strained as he shouted, "Oh, man, that hurt _really really_ bad!"

Alecto let out a sigh of relief. "He's fine." Now that her worry about Soul had been assuaged, she had to admit that she was a little excited by all of this. She wondered what that said about her as a person.

The bubbly, infectious laugh of a young woman emanated from one of the guns in Death the Kid's hands. The other gun spoke, also a young woman, but with a deeper, less upbeat voice. _"Did you think a pair of normal pistols would be enough for a Grim Reaper? We aren't like regular guns that shoot bullets,"_ the gun said matter-of-factly. _"We shoot compressed wavelengths of our meister's soul."_

So _that's_ what the dark energy was. It didn't look anything like the energy that came off of Black Star when he used his soul wavelength to attack, nor had it looked anything like what Stein had used in his fight with the six of them a couple weeks ago. Was it because he wasn't human, like those two were? At least, she assumed that Stein was human, but frankly she wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be something else.

As if thinking about Stein offhandedly had summoned the professor, the dread-inducingly familiar sound of an office chair's rolling wheels came into Alecto's range of hearing, and she looked over her shoulder to see Dr. Stein, Maka and Tsubaki, the three of whom having finally arrived. "I thought that was you back in the hall. Aren't you two supposed to be back in class?" Maka said pointedly.

"We wanted to see what was going on," Tempus said just as pointedly, maneuvering so that Alecto was between him and Dr. Stein. "I'd make some excuse about how watching Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dummy get the stuffing beaten out of them like a particularly abused training dummy is an educational experience, but the only education I'm getting from this is that yes, I should most assuredly be fearing the reaper."

Stein didn't seem to be too bothered by Alecto and Tempus's presence, however. His gaze was focused on the battle, a disturbing about of interest visible in his pale grayish-green eyes. However, when he spoke, his voice was as calm as always, with only a hint of amusement lacing his words. "Oh, my," he said. "They probably should have picked a different opponent."

"Dr. Stein, is that the boy?" Maka asked. "The one with the guns, is he the new kid that everyone's been talking about so much?"

"Yup," Dr. Stein replied, almost casually, as if he were confirming that it was a Tuesday. "That's Lord Death's son, Death the Kid. It was his own decision to attend the academy, but he won't be a normal student. His abilities are far greater than anyone else's here." Alecto suspected that included the teachers of DWMA as well as the students.

A small, crestfallen sigh caught Alecto's attention, and she turned to glance at Tsubaki, who'd been the one to sigh. If she'd been sad before, it was nothing compared to the look on her face now. "But why, Black Star?" Tsubaki whispered, so quietly that Alecto wasn't even sure that she'd heard correctly.

Maka seemed to notice the taller girl's distress as well, as she glanced up at Tsubaki with a concerned expression across her features. "Tsubaki? Is something wrong?" she asked.

Tsubaki smiled, but it was as about as convincing as that one time that Tempus had claimed that he hadn't eaten all the chocolate muffins despite still having cocoa crumbs on his face. "Oh no, it's nothing," she said. Maka looked about as convinced by those words as Alecto felt. What was it that had caused Tsubaki to be so downhearted all morning?

And then the gears clicked into place. Tsubaki's sadness and the way it seemed to exacerbate whenever Black Star was around. The fact that Black Star was fighting alongside Soul instead of his actual partner. That blue-haired, two-timing, trash-on-the-side-of-the-road _spurius._

Anger found its way into Alecto's consciousness, an anger so condensed and pure that she couldn't stop herself from taking a couple steps forward and calling out, "Hey, new kid! Kick their asses for me, _sīs!_"

Death the Kid looked up sharply, only just now acknowledging the presence of the quintet of onlookers. Expression still stern, his gaze locked with hers for a second, and Alecto was taken aback by the rather startling color of his eyes. They were yellow, like Tempus's, but Tempus's eyes could be and often were likened to the color of burnished gold, whereas Death the Kid's eyes were much brighter and sharper. _Everything_ about this boy was sharp, Alecto noted. She met his gaze and stared back just as steadily, and it was almost about to turn into a full-blown staring contest when Soul shouted, "Hey, quit rooting for the other side, damn it!"

"Make me!" Alecto shouted back, wrenching her gaze away from Death the Kid's and giving Soul a sharp glare and a cheeky grin instead, her cheeks flushing slightly.

The fight resumed as before, with Soul and Black Star both trying to get close enough to land an attack on Death the Kid, but between the latter's advantage with range and superior fighting skills, they stood no chance. If Alecto weren't so fiercely eager to see Black Star get his ego bruised, battered, and handed to him on a silver platter, she'd almost take pity on him. She had no qualms feeling a little sorry for Soul, though. The snow-haired boy had been shot, even if non-fatally, and it wasn't as if he was the one who'd made Tsubaki so sad.

Stein spoke. "My dear soul-seeing scythe meister Maka, can I borrow you for a moment?"

"U-uh, yeah?" Maka said.

Alecto tried to concentrate on both the conversation about to take place next to her and the battle in front of her. It turned out to be a bit more difficult that she had figured it would be. How Tempus managed to do it on a regular basis, she'd never know.

Black Star jumped up and forward, aiming a kick at Kid's head. When the black-haired boy ducked easily, Black Star used to momentum to swing a second kick out. That kick missed too, with Death the Kid jumping back and well away from Black Star's foot.

"I have a special lesson in mind for you today," Stein told Maka.

Soul lunged towards his opponent, the black-and-red blade of his arm gleaming sharply in the late-morning sun as he swung it. Kid shot at him in response, the force of the wavelength sent him flying back.

"O-oh, okay!" Maka said, the apprehension clear in her voice.

"Now, now," Stein admonished. "There's no reason to be worried. It's a very simple question. I want you to take a look at the duel. Watch Kid and his twin pistols as they fight. I want you to pay particular attention to their souls' wavelengths."

Maka gave a short, curt nod of understanding in reply and turned to the fight, her vision focusing on something that only her and Dr. Stein could see. Being unable to look at the wavelengths of the combatants, Alecto simply settled for continuing to the fight itself. At this point, the word "fight" was a bit of a misnomer, as it implied that Soul and Black Star had any chance of winning. It was a thrashing to the two's egos, nothing more.

Not that they didn't need a ego-thrashing every now and again, though. And it wasn't as if Alecto didn't enjoy watching Black Star and Soul flailing about like idiots while trying to dodge Kid's attacks.

Her vision still focused on something imperceivable, Maka said, "Normally it's almost impossible to sync the wavelengths of two weapons like that." True; Alecto only knew of one other person who could work with two weapons at once, and that was Kilik Rung, a boy in their class who Alecto didn't know very well. "But the connection between all three of them is strong and very stable. And the weapons seem to share a respect for him. Not, that's not the word." Maka's brow furrowed slightly as she tried to put what she saw to words. "_Admiration,_ is that it?"

"Exactly correct," Stein said. "A good observation. The twin pistols are called the Thompson sisters. They grew up on the streets, and their lives were much harder before they met Kid. It's natural they would have a strong admiration for him," he explain. "The partnership works for Kid, too. It's good for him to be around people so different. The Thompson sister's laid-back attitudes have a positive influence on him by quieting his neurotic tendencies."

_Neurotic tendencies?_ Kid didn't look particularly neurotic. Then again, Alecto didn't know what neurotic looked like, and the battlefield often had a way of changing a person's demeanor. People were different were fighting. Alecto didn't know much about people, but she knew that much.

"They do make a really good team, those three," Maka agreed.

"Don't they?" Stein said.

Tempus spoke up. "They certainly work well in battle." He'd been pretty quiet for the most part, a nervous gaze trained on Dr. Stein. "If they didn't have that, they'd… well, they'd probably still win, but it wouldn't be as decisively absolute as it's turning out to be right now."

"Yeah," Maka said," you can't even compare them to our two idiots out there."

Speaking of those two idiots, Black Star and Soul had regrouped, for lack of a better word, standing next to each other and glowering at Kid determinedly. "Let's hurry up and finish this guy off!" Black Star said.

"It's about time," Soul said, eagerness and anticipation apparent in his words.

Death the Kid reacted in an appropriate manner: with an expression of disbelief and confusion. "For what?" he asked.

"You should quake with fear of your impending death!" Black Star taunted.

"When you say that it just makes me want to laugh."

_A shared sentiment,_ Alecto thought.

"You won't be laughing when you taste our power of friendship!"

"That's right, it's incredible!" Soul added. "The power is beyond belief."

"What?!" Kid looked shocked at this, as if he actually believed them.

Alecto had a different reaction entirely, however, She _laughed._ Mirth bubbling in her stomach, she couldn't help herself as she burst into incredulous merriment. "Oh, that's certainly one way of putting it!" She said between hysterics. "It sure is unbelievable. As in, _non credo quod!_" She couldn't believe that Death the Kid was buying this even for a millisecond. Hell, she couldn't believe that_ Soul and Black Star_ were buying their own words for a millisecond. After all, who looked at _Black Star_ and thought "power beyond all belief and comprehension?"

In Alecto's first language, there was a word for this whole mess: _stultus._

The three kids engaged in a face-off that lasted a few seconds before Soul spoke again. "Let's do it."

"Yeah," Black Star replied.

Another second passed, though it felt much longer, to the point where Alecto wondered if her laughter had ripped her personal time out of sync from the rest of the temporal flow. Then Soul shouted, striking a ridiculously over the top pose as he did so, "Trans! _Form!_" As the brilliant light of the transformation wavelength enveloped him, he jumped, propelling himself into the air and spinning about as he made his shift into weapon form.

_This is silly._

Perhaps it was simply a matter of viewpoint, but Alecto didn't understand why Death the Kid had a look of awe on his face at this spectacle. It was pretty, yes, but there was nothing good that could come from having a sharp and pointing weapon spinning recklessly in the air.

_This is really silly._

Black Star threw his arms up in the air, stretching his hands to the sky enthusiastically. "Come on, Soul!" he cried out.

_This is incredibly silly!_

Soul came twirling back down, his voice echoing across the grounds and possibly over a bit of Death City as well. "_FRIENDSHIIIIIP!_"

"FUSION!"

Soul landed blade-first on Black Star's head.

A few horrifically awkward seconds passed as Soul fell to the ground with a clatter and Black Star stood there, as still as a statue. The he started screaming at the top of his lungs, blood coming out of his head and his eyes practically bugging straight out of his skull.

This time, the hysterics forced Alecto to the ground, doubled up in raucous laughter. "_Ha ha ha ha ha!_ Oh, sweet mercy, _aah haha ha ha!_ I - _aha hahaha_ - can't breathe!"

"Is his _hair_ bleeding?" Tempus asked. "Actually, nope, not going to question it. Not going to question anything anymore. I give up."

_"Why the hell did you catch me with your head, moron?!"_ Soul snapped.

Black Star paused in his screaming to push the big spike in his hair (which had been neatly bisected by Soul's blade) back together, and shouted back, "I don't know!" He reached down and tried picking Soul up, but it was as if the scythe was welded to the ground. "Augh, you're too freaking heavy! I can't pick you up!"

_"I'm not heavy! Maka swings me around without breaking a sweat!"_

Tsubaki looked like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Maka sighed. "Black Star and Soul are definitely lacking in the compatible wavelength department," she noted.

"So it seems," Dr. Stein said in agreement.

Alecto was genuinely starting to have difficulty breathing through her laughter, but she didn't care. This whole mess had just turned about a dozen times more interesting, and she was. "_Ha ha ha! Pro di immortales,_ this is incredible!"

"I think you're enjoying this a little too much," Tsubaki said.

"_Hah ha_ - I think I'm going to - _HA HA HA HA_ - have to disagree! _Ha ha!_ This is beautiful!"

Tempus's next words summed up the situation quite succinctly.

"It's a damn train wreck is what it is."

* * *

_A/N - Alecto's getting sort of swept up in this whole thing, isn't she? If she weren't so angry at Black Star, I highly doubt she'd be as enthusiastic about it as she is right now. Though I will admit that I had a pretty similar reaction when I first watched this episode. Oh, Black Star. Oh, Soul. You goofballs. (Not that Kid isn't a total goofball or anything. Jeez, everyone in this show is such a tremendous dork.)_

_I admit, most of the reason I left the cliffhanger ending was because there wasn't any "love at first sight" going on. Narrative build-up and anticlimax for max laughter on my part, because I am a writer and thus am required by writer law to be an evil, evil person. Well, that and it was a good place to cut the chapter off after 5000 words, but mostly for narrative hilarity. So yeah, to answer KaseyKay10, there is no love at first sight. There is respect for combat prowess at first sight and curiosity at first sigh and maybe a little bit of attraction at first sight, though._

_On to the Latin!_

_**Tace:** Means "Shut up." Alecto's been saying that a lot lately._

___**Quod incredibile:** "That was incredible" or "That's incredible." The exact tense escapes me right now. _

_____**Spurius:** Means "bastard." Not in the illegitimate child sort of definition of the word, but it's pretty much the equivalent to when we call someone a bastard because they're being a huge jerk._

_______**Sīs:** Pretty much means "please," it's more direct translation would be "if you're willing," or "if you want." It's a pretty polite word. Hey, Alecto may be a little abrasive, over-enthusiastic about seeing her classmates get the stuffing kicked out of them, and determined to a fault, but god damn it if she doesn't have good manners when speaking to the son of Lord Death._

_________**Non credo quod:** "I do not believe that."_

___________**Stultus:** the basic form of "stupid" or "foolish._

_____________**Pro di immortales:** "Immortal gods!" It's a similar sentiment as the well-known "Oh my god!"_

_____________So much Latin, so little time._

_____________Chapter fifteen should be up at some point over the weekend. In the meantime, please feel free to leave me a favorite and a review telling me what you think!_

_____________- Diana "Nocte"_


	15. Chapter 15

_A/N - Okay, I swear to God I'll get back on that little hamster wheel of motivation and start churning out chapters again. I swear. I've just been marathoning some anime with my sister, including the Puella Magi Madoka Magica blu-ray I mentioned last chapter. No matter how many times I watch that damn anime, it still finds new ways to rip by beating heart out of my chest and toss it out the nearest window. That's okay, though. I'm a writer, I don't need my heart. :)_

_I would like to thank Superhero17 and Carolinefdq for reviewing! To __Superhero17, I have to say that I totally agree that episode six is an absolute delight. Both watching it and writing the events have been an utter blast for me, and it's easily launched itself into a comfortable spot in my top 5 favorite episodes._

___To __Carolinefdq, I say that I'm glad that you liked the past two chapters! I knew from the start that I didn't want Alecto to be swooning over Kid in a romantic since as soon as she saw him. Swooning in a "whoa boy's got skills" sense, maybe. But I've never really liked writing "love at first sight" relationships because I've always thought that part of the fun of writing the relationship was the development of them getting to know each other and there feelings growing. I'll also say that I've already watched Madoka Magica several times before we got the blu-ray (Yay Crunchyroll!) but my sister hadn't, and watching her flip her shit over the revelations was like half the fun of marathoning it with her._

_____Also, Happy New Years! I'll admit I'm not all that pumped for 2014 (not expecting anything earth-shatteringly awesome to happen during it), but I'm sure it'll have it's fun moments nonetheless!_

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen - A Boy to Remember - The Son of Death's First Day at the Academy, Part 3**

* * *

Tempus found this whole scene almost embarrassing to watch, but he found himself unable to turn away.

It wasn't because he had a genuine investment in the success of either side. While the shenanigans of Black Star and Soul certainly weren't winning him over, he didn't know anything about this Death the Kid boy beyond the fact that he could hold his own against two buffoons. For all Tempus knew, this kid could be an even _bigger_ buffoon. No, the real reason that he couldn't turn away from this mess was because this whole mess was kind of pathetically hilarious. He wasn't dissolving into conniptions like Alecto was (although her laughter was dying into quiet giggles at this point, and she'd gotten back to her feet), but he did find himself having to hold back an entertained smirk or two.

He was probably a terrible person for that, but hey, he wasn't the one who thought idiocy-inflicted injuries were hysterical.

Speaking of idiocy and injuries, Black Star was still trying to pick up Soul. Any fool could see that was all for nothing; Tempus knew all too well that if a meister's soul wasn't compatible with a weapon's, the two would be completely incapable of fighting together like weapon and meister should. But that didn't stop these two from trying. "Come on, you stupid scythe!" Black Star said through gritted teeth. "I just need to lift you up!"

Soul energy crackled from Black Star's hands and rippled across Soul, whose human form's torso popped out of his blade and spit out a fountain's worth of blood. "What the hell are you doing, hitting me with your soul's wavelength? That hurts, you idiot!" he shouted furiously, his crimson eyes alight with anger and agony.

Even Black Star seemed a little cowed by the ferocity with which Soul spoke. "Oh. My bad."

Alecto looked like she was about to burst into another fit of laughter, though it seemed that she'd taken Tsubaki's reproach a little bit to heart and kept herself reined in a little. Tsubaki was staring at the scene with such a look of open-mouthed incredulity that Tempus wondered if her jaw was going to drop off her head and clatter to the floor.

"It's almost hard to watch," Tsubaki said, echoing Tempus's thoughts. "Those morons can't seem to sense each other's wavelengths at all."

Stein nodded. "Before a meister and his or her weapon fight an opponent, they need to adjust their wavelengths to sync with each other." Another truth that Tempus knew very well. While some souls were more malleable than others when it came to syncing wavelengths, others were incredibly difficult to sync to, making them difficult to be compatible with. Other souls were just plain hard-headed, and Tempus wagered that Black Star's soul was one of those.

Soul had fully turned back into his human home, and had turned away from Black Star, his expression obscured. "Black Star," he said flatly. "It's over between us."

Black Star looked a bit distraught. "W...what exactly are you saying, Soul?" he asked.

_They're not._

Soul's voice shook with equal parts despair and melodrama as he responded. "If we try to stay together like this… I'll only end up hating you. It's for the best."

_They are. Oh, goodie._ Tempus could practically see the dramatic pink shoujo sparkles rolling off the two in waves, and he rolled his eyes liberally, a scoff escaping his lips. Beside him, Alecto's expression switch from amused to annoyed without missing a beat. Tsubaki and Maka and even _Stein_ looked dumbfounded at this pseudo-dramatic development.

Death the Kid simply pointed his pistols at the two. "Hey," he said, probably to his partners. "Can I shoot them now?" One of his pistols said something that Tempus wasn't quite able to understand.

_"Sīs,"_ Alecto sighed.

Meanwhile, Black Star was still staring at Soul, and Tempus wondered if he should start throwing cherry blossoms into the wind to heighten the atmosphere or something. "O-oh, I understand," the blue-haired boy said. "But even though it's over…" He looked away… bashfully? Was bashfully the right word? "...would it be okay if we stayed friends?"

There was a moment's pause. Then, "You _idiot!_" Soul turned on his heel, a sappy smile lighting up his pale face. "Of course we're still going to be friends!" He then began to run very, very slowly towards Black Star. "Forever!"

"Oh, _Soul!_" A similarly sappy grin stretching across his features, Black Star began running toward Soul just as slowly.

Tempus glanced over at Alecto, bemused. "Did… did you knock time out of sync? Is that what's going on here?"

"_Nōn,_" Alecto said. "Did you?"

"No." So this was just run-of-the-mill stupidity that was going on, then.

"Black Star!" Soul cried.

"Oh, Soul!"

_"Black Star!"_

_"Oh, Soul!"_

"They need professional help," Maka said flatly.

The two boys practically collided into each other, flinging their arms around each other in a solid hug. The embrace, however, was interrupted after a second by two simultaneous _bangs_ as Kid fired, the soul projectile knocking the two off their feet. "Oops. Sorry," he said in tone that suggested that he wasn't sorry in the slightest. "My fingers slipped."

Alecto looked like she wanted to start _cheering_ for the short shit.

Having been violently reminded that they were still in the middle of a duel, Soul and Black Star got to their feet. "We just can't quit in the middle of a fight!" Soul said.

"Right!" Black Star declared. "We're not giving up until we beat him."

"'Kay," Kid said in a _are-these-two-serious_ manner of voice. "We'll see how well that works."

Black Star and Soul charged forward, Soul's morphing his right arm into his scythe form's blade. Black Star was quickest, his hand low to the ground and crackling with wavelength energy "Let's see how you handle a taste of my soul waves!" slammed his foot into the ground with enough force to crack it, clearly intending to pull off one of his "Black Star Big Waves," but Death the Kid merely ducked underneath Black Star's arm as the latter swung out, knocking him off his feet with a well-aimed kick and knocking him away with his shoulder, as if Black Star were a ragdoll and not a trained meister.

"Black Star's specialty is martial arts," Maka said, "But Kid is just… _playing_ with him. And the way he's been fighting today, Soul has no chance against him, either."

Her point was proven not a second later when Soul lunged forward, swinging his blade in the general area of Death the Kid's head. The black-haired boy didn't even have to look as he blocked the blade and knocked Soul aside with one of his pistols. "You're as slow as you are stupid," he said.

Alecto was practically jumping up and down with anticipation, and had yanked her ribbon out of her hair, wringing it between her hands like it was a poisonous snake. She was clearly getting much more excitement out of this than anyone else here. Tempus noticed that she'd left her tea back at the classroom by accident. Was that why she was so invested in this fight, because she didn't have anything to calm her down? Tempus wrote a mental note to remind her to bring her tea with her next time Black Star was getting his ass kicked.

Black Star had pulled his belt… scarf… neck… strip of cloth _thing_ (honestly, Tempus had stopped questioning Black Star's bizarre wardrobe long time ago) off of his neck and gripped it tightly in his hand as he charged forward. "You're goin' down!" he shouted.

Soul charged forward at the same time, and Kid shot them both with equally precise simultaneity, but not before Black Star had managed to whip one end of the strip of cloth around the Reaper boy's ankle. Death the Kid noticed it an instant too late. "You idiot!" Black Star exclaimed. "You fell for it!" He yanked on the cloth, sending Kid falling squarely on his rear.

With a cry of "Ha! Gotcha!" Soul leapt into the air and transformed into his scythe form, spinning blade over handle through the air straight towards Kid. His aim was off by only the slightest amount, missing Kid's face by millimeters as his blade lodged itself into the stony ground. Kid somersaulted away, and Black Star, who was still holding on to the strip of cloth, was pulled forward, his face colliding with the side of Soul's blade.

Tempus considered himself to be a fairly intelligent and well-read individual, and yet couldn't find any words to describe the mutual expression that Maka and Tsubaki both wore on their faces. The closest approximation he could think of was "mortified." "Our partners are pretty useless, huh?" Maka said.

"I'd give them a cute sticker for effort," Tempus said. Not a good sticker, though. Those terrible ones from the first grade that didn't stick to anything longer than an hour and had really lame sayings on them. God, he hated those.

Death the Kid had stood up, a sudden dark severity in his expression. His voice harsher than it had been before, he spoke. "And now it's time for you to see the power of a _Grim Reaper._" The way he said that sent an icy chill of apprehension down Tempus's spine, a chill not warmed by Kid's next few words, words echoed by his weapons. _"Let's go, Soul Resonance!"_

_Oh, shit,_ Tempus thought. _Oh shit oh shit ohhh shit._ Beside him, Alecto let out a small, thrilled gasp with an excitement he couldn't exactly say he shared. He wasn't too eager to see a Grim Reaper's Soul Resonance. He was perfectly happy living blissfully ignorant of the fact that the five-foot-tall adolescent in front of him could turn him to ash without even trying, _thank you very much_.

Death the Kid began to _levitate_, a storm of dust rising up in a circle around the boy as he floated up a few feet in the air. Maka leaned forward, her brows knitted together. "It looks like their souls have begun to expand!" she said, her voice a mixture of equal parts awe and apprehension.

"Now they're showing off their true strength," Stein said, as monotonously as ever.

The two of them seemed pretty impressed by what they saw, whatever it was. Soul and Black Star, however, were operating on either bravado or plain stupidity. "Okay! Let's see what you got!" Soul taunted, making the universal gesture for _bring it on._

"Reaper Schmeaper!" Black Star agreed. "Bring it on!"

Dark soul energy began to crackle and spark around Death the Kid, resulting in three pillars of the violet and red, lightning-esque energy shooting from each arm. The energy solidify into black spikes, of all things. Kid's pistol partners were surrounding by a much brighter transformation energy, expanding and shifting from pistols to, for lack of a better word, giant arm cannons. They didn't seem to weigh Kid down any as he fell back to the ground, landing lightly on his feet and crouching low to the ground. "Execution mode ready," he said, the dark soul energy all but enveloping him, "prepare to die!"

_Hm. Oh dear._ "I'm going to hide behind the conveniently-placed blast proof pillar now, Ally," Tempus said, sliding towards said pillar.

"You do that." Alecto was still entranced by the duel. Tempus considered dragging her along with him, but decided against it. She wanted to watch this fight clearly, that much was obvious, and no amount of tugging would get her to budge from that spot. He supposed that he could carry her if he _really_ wanted to, but he had the sneaking suspicion that attempting to do so would likely result in his demise. So he simply dove behind the alabaster pillar, peeking out slightly to keep an eye on the fight. If things got too chaotic, he'd desynchronize and drag Alecto kicking and screaming away from any danger.

Soul looked just as unnerved as Tempus felt. "Um," he said. "I don't like the looks of that."

"Come on!" Black Star shouted, his reckless ego trumping any sense the boy had. "What are you gonna do, little man?! I've swatted _flies_ that are scarier that you! So _there_! Ha ha ha!"

If that was true, Tempus needed to buy a bigger flyswatter.

"_Resonance stable,_" the older-sounding pistol-cannon-of-doom said. _"Noise at zero-point-three percent."_ As she spoke, the soul energy grew darker and more erratic, black wavelengths shooting off in random directions.

_"Black Needle Soul Wavelength full charged!"_ the younger-sounding, more upbeat of the two guns said. Red wavelengths rippled around the two weapons.

_"Preparing to fire. Feedback in four seconds. Three."_

_"Two."_

_"One."_

_"Firing now!"_

Death the Kid pulled his weapons up and forward, pointing them both directly at Soul and Black Star as two brilliant circles of energy began to build up at their muzzles. "Death cannon!"

Tempus decided that he didn't really need to watch how this played out, and promptly moved turned away, pressing his back flush against the cold pillar. He shot a glance at Alecto, who was starting to look like she wanted to dive behind a pillar herself.

Tempus wasn't looking at the fight anymore, but he could hear the eardrum-shattering _boom_ of the guns firing, instantly followed by Soul's panicked voice. "This doesn't look good. We should run!"

"Hah!" Tempus heard Black Star exclaim. "Don't be ridiculous! No way is something like that going to hurt me! It's impossib-"

The explosion both cut him off and rendered his words moot. The blast seemed to be fairly contained, with the only effect on the spectators being a quick ruffling of the hair. Tempus let out a sigh of relief as the explosion gave way to a welcome quiet. He was happy that the whole mess was finally over, though he was worried about how his two classmates were faring. That had been a brutal final attack.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki cried out, distress filling her voice as she rushed forward. Alecto's expression changed into something unreadable, and she followed.

Maka sighed, placing her hands on her hips and shaking her head slightly. "Oh, man, what were those idiots _thinking?_" she said.

"They probably weren't." Tempus said.

He felt a quick tug on his wavelength, and realized that someone had yanked their time out of sync. With a _tick_, he desynchronized his own personal temporal bubble and moved away from the pillar. Alecto was jogging towards a rather sizable crate in the ground, no doubt caused by that Death Cannon. "Hey," he called out.

Alecto stopped and turned around to face him. "Hey," she said.

"So, what's up?" Tempus asked, ambling forward and shoving his hands into his pockets. He figured that he might as well get straight to the point. "I know you aren't exactly buddy-buddy with Black Star, but you seemed to actively _want_ him pummeled. Heck, if I'm honest, a couple times you looked like you wanted to go out there and join in."

Alecto shrugged, her expression unchanging. "Black Star's the reason that Tsubaki's been so sad all day."

Ah. "Ah."

"Don't 'ah' me," Alecto snapped, turning on her heel and quickly walking over to the crater and jumping in. _Tock._ Time reasserted its natural flow, and Tempus jumped a bit when Tsubaki raced past him, before following to two girls into the crater.

Black Star and Soul looked to be fairly well off, all circumstances considered. They were both stunned by the blast and Black Star looked to be short half a tooth, but apart from that they were surprisingly unharmed for two idiots who just took the equivalent of a cannon blast to the face. Tsubaki and Alecto were both kneeling beside Black Star, Alecto holding two fingers against the blue-haired boy's wrist. After a second, she looked up. "He's fine, Tsubaki. Though that tooth looks like it's gonna hurt for a while."

It was Tsubaki's turn to look relieved. "Oh, Black Star. What were you thinking?" she asked, helping Black Star sit up.

"Yes, that does seem to be the million dollar question," Tempus remarked.

Seemingly satisfied with the fact that Black Star was not, in fact, going to die, Alecto stood up, her expression still unreadable. "_Quod…_" Another tug on Tempus's wavelength, and suddenly Alecto was several feet away, running towards Death the Kid with a bright grin on her face. "_Quod mirabile erat! Mirabile erâs!_" Death the Kid, who'd been standing stock still with his back turned to the results of his Death Cannon, didn't respond as Alecto kept shouting. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like that! That was amazing! That was fantastic! That was-"

Death the Kid spit up blood and toppled over.

"_...Quid?_"

_What._ Tempus pulled himself out of the crater, taking care not to step on Black Star or Soul, who were starting to push themselves to their feet. As he walked over to stand by Alecto's side and see just what had happened to the kid, the twin pistols began to glow and expand, shifting into their human forms.

They were both taller, blonde girls in their late teens, and they certainly looked like sisters; the taller, older-looking one had longer and darker hair and the shorter, presumable younger one had a rounder face and brighter eyes, but there was definitely a certain similarity in their faces. They dressed similarly as well, the both of them wearing white cowboy hats, crimson crop tops, and short white ties. The biggest difference in their outfits was that the taller girl was wearing jeans while the shorter one was wearing puffy denim shorts. "Ay, ay, ay," the shorter girl sighed, still managing to sound bubbly instead of exasperated.

The older girl, however, _did_ sound exasperated. "Great. Here we go again."

All the color had drained from Alecto's usually-olive face. "I-is he okay?" she stammered.

"Yeah, he's fine." The older girl waved away Alecto's concerns. "He does this a lot." Meanwhile, the younger girl had dissolved into bright, cheerful giggles.

"He…coughs up blood a lot?" Alecto didn't seem to be particularly assuaged.

The sound of office chair wheels heralded Dr. Stein's approach seconds before he rolled into view. "What happened to him?" the grey-haired professor asked, sounding more curious than concerned.

"Not much," the older girl said, "it's just a little cut."

"What got cut?"

"I think I might have an idea of what it was," Maka said as she walked up to the group. "See, I'm pretty sure it happened during Soul's last attack on Kid." she explained when Stein turned an inquisitive gaze toward her. "I think that Kid got a little haircut off of his bangs."

Tempus glanced down at the boy. Sure enough, a few locks of his bangs had been rather blatantly messily cut. Still, fainting because of a trim off the edges? _Weak,_ he thought.

Maka continued. "After the explosion happened and everything died down, Kid finally noticed that one side of his bangs were shorter than the other. His symmetry was off, so he spit up blood and fell over."

Alecto stared at Maka, dumbfounded. "He… fell over because of a… haircut?" Tempus could practically hear her brain blue-screening and trying a hard reboot with this information in mind.

Soul and Black Star had shaken off the explosion and had crawled out of their little pit, with Soul sitting on the ground and Black Star standing with his arms crossed and a smug expression on his face. "He's the one bleeding now, so that means we actually won the fight," Soul said.

"Yeah!" Black Star declared, puffing his chest out proudly. "Right! It means we won and that I, Black Star, have defeated a Reaper!" he tilted his head back and shouted to the sky, "I knew it! Who's gonna be talking about this guy now!" He began to laugh loudly.

"Whoa, whoa!" Alecto exclaimed, turning to face the two boys. "_Nōn!_ What sort of duel is one by giving your opponent a haircut?!"

"Well," Maka said, "duels on school grounds are supposed to be considered over win one person is bleeding or until the professor overlooking the duel decides to end it. The rules don't really specify that the blood has to be from a direct attack. It's a legitimate win for Black Star and Soul."

Upon being told this. Alecto looked like she'd just been told that the sky was actually purple and she'd been seeing it wrong this whole time.

"Ha ha! I bet you really wish you hadn't been rooting for that guy, huh?" Black Star said. "Don't worry about it, though; I just beat a Grim Reaper! I'm way too big now for a little fish like you to bother me."

The corner of Alecto's eye was starting to twitch, so Tempus figured it was time to relocate her to an environment with less Black Star in it. He placed a protective hand on his shoulder and shot Black Star his most charming grin. "Well, while I'm sure she'd be absolutely delighted to hear all about the error of her ways, I distinctly remember there being a thermos of tea with her name on it back in the classroom."

Alecto perked up immediately. "Oh, gosh, that's right! The tea!" Before anyone had a chance to say another word, she was gone, the ever-fading sensation of time desynchronizing and resynchronizing tugging faintly on Tempus's wavelengths. Tempus thanked his lucky stars that his meister's adoration of tea was stronger than her anger towards Black Star.

"Are you really sure you're alright now, Black Star?" Tsubaki asked.

"Hell yeah!" Black Star said. "Of course I'm alright! I beat Death today; I'm _awesome!_"

_Yes, you certainly are awe-inspiring,_ Tempus thought dryly._ Probably not the kind of awe you're thinking of, though._

"Yeah," Tsubaki said, smiling slightly. "It was amazing. But… please try not to do anything too crazy from now on?"

"Yeah, right! Nothing's too crazy for me now! I've beaten up a Reaper, after all! What's crazier than that! Ha ha ha!"

"Tsubaki's the only one for him," Tempus heard Maka sigh amidst Black Star's uproarious laughter. "I don't think anyone else could handle Black Star."

_Probably not,_ Tempus thought. He glanced over at Death the Kid and the Thompson sisters, the taller of whom was pulling the still-dazed boy up onto her back, piggyback style. As he watched the tall, fair-haired weapon take care of her short, clearly somewhat neurotic meister, he couldn't help but feel a strange, totally unexplainable sense of kinship with the older girl.

"Hey," he said, "is he going to be okay? I'm no medical expert, but spitting up blood tends not to be a good sign. Ever."

"He'll be fine," the older girl said. "Kid can be kind of a brat sometimes, but he's tough."

"I see." Tempus paused. "You're name's Thompson, right?"

"Yeah. Liz. This is my sister, Patti." The taller girl nodded to the younger one, who was poking at Kid's cheek with an expression of curiosity on her face.

"Tempus. Nice to meet you, Liz," Tempus said. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go track down my own meister." Shooting Liz a smile and a quick wave, he pivoted towards the school, reaching his wavelength out and grasping the time around him.

_Tick._

* * *

_A/N - __From pretty early on I knew I wanted Tempus to be that somewhat self-aware guy who looked at all the weird anime shit going on in Soul Eater and just think, "what the fuck is this bullshit." Alecto is aware of the absurdity of Death City as well, but too a much lesser extent than Tempus is. I blame time shenanigans._

_That being said, I think the funniest thing I've ever written was Tempus and Alecto looking at Soul and Black Star's little moment and thinking "did we do something to the temporal flow?" Ah, one of the perils of being a lampshade-hanging time master is looking at slow-motion and thinking "Is that supposed to be happening or did we break something?"_

_Speaking of my writign and breaking things, let's take a look at the Latin!_

_**Sīs:** Still a politce way of saying "please" or "if you would be so kind as to shoot those morons in front of me that would be very much appreciated yes"_

___**Quod mirabile erat! Mirabile erâs!:** "That was glorius! You were glorius!" I wanted Alecto's Latin praise to go on a bit longer, but I don't know enough Latin to be able to vary the sentence structure beyond "you were x, you were y," or how much sentence structure could even be varied in Latin. Man, language is weird._

___This arc's not quite over, yet. There's one more chapter for this arc, then we'll be heading on to the next arc, which I will admit to be slightly filler, but it'll be fun filler. Chapter 16 will be up within the week. In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review telling me what you think!_

___- Diana "Nocte"_


	16. Chapter 16

_A/N - Oh. Um. Gosh. I guess I have a bit of explaining to do, don't I?_

_So, uh, long story short, I got hit with a bad case of the dreaded Writer's Block and ended up getting really worried that my writing wasn't that good. Why? Well, because I'm deathly terrified of writing the canon characters out of character. My little sister eventually had to drag me out of my funk kicking and screaming my reminding me that I'd put so much effort into this already and that if I just gave up I'd be letting down both my readers and myself._

_Have I mentioned yet that my little sister is awesome and totally cooler than I am?_

_________Also, fun fact: At over 6000 words (counting the author's notes), this is the longest chapter I've written so far._

_Speaking of awesome things, this story got five reviews between last chapter and this one! Whoa. :O So, thank you to Carolinefdq, turtledove237, Guest, and Crona. ismyspiritanimal for reviewing!_

_In response to __Carolinefdq's review, I can say with complete certainty that I am never going to write a "love at first sight" story. A swift-arrived crush, sure. I'm a teenager, I know what it's like to look at a cute boy and think "oh gosh (heart sign)". But having the two lovebirds think about how perfect they are in agonizingly purple prose while they're meeting for the first time is just sloppy writing._

___Also, my little sister is 12 and I'm 15. One of the biggest things we do together is sit on the couch together and marathon whatever we grab off the DVD shelves, often riffing on stuff along the way. I was the one who got her into Soul Eater. (Her favorite character is Crona because, I quote, "I want to hug him and take him home and give him so much candy because he deserves better than what he got." I have taught her well.)_

___To __turtledove237, I give a big "thank you!" Especially on the pacing comment; I'm always worried that I'll go through a plot point too quickly. I don't know why I'm constantly worried about that, though, considering I'm at like 60K words and we're not even a fifth of the way through the anime's storyline. But I am, and it's good to know that I'm not rushing through anything important!_

_____To the Guest, I say thank you, and I'm glad I'm making Latin enjoyable for you! (I'll admit I'm not very good at Latin, though. I'm resorting to the internet for approximately 100% of this, so some of it may probably be a little grammatically incorrect.)_

_____To __Crona. ismyspiritanimal (I had to put a space in your name so that the FFn text editor wouldn't delete it, sorry!) I say a really big thank you! I'm glad you like Tempus so much, because he's an absolute blast to write, the snarky ass. Thank you! :D_

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen - A Boy to Remember - The Time Meister Meets Death the Kid**

* * *

_Knock knock._ The sound of a firm hand tapping against the solid wood of the front door split the calm silence, causing both Tempus and Alecto to look up from the books that they were reading. Alecto was reading a story about a society where people lived in a classist society based on age and attractiveness and everyone surgery to become "beautiful" when they turned sixteen, and she'd been quite enthralled by it. So a bit of irritation laced her voice as she'd asked, "Who's that?"

"Who else comes knocking at this time at night?" Tempus pointed out, closing his book (a Charles Dickens novel of some sort) and pulling himself out of the worn leather chair that he'd long ago claimed as his. "I'll get the door."

"Thank you," Alecto said. stretching and sinking even further into the cushions of the couch. She'd have gotten it herself, but the couch was really, _really_ comfortable, and she was reaching the best part in the book. At least, she assumed this was the best part. This was the first time she'd read this particular story.

Tempus swung the door open. "Who could it be that is rapping, rapping on my chamber door? Oh, 'tis some visitor, and nothing more!"

A warm, familiar voice piped up from the other side. "Unless Poe's raven brought double-fudge brownies when he went to haunt the narrator's psyche, I don't think that quote is really appropriate."

Tempus's golden eyes sparkled with glee. "Double fudge?"

"Yep!"

"Well, this visitor is most certainly welcome in." Tempus stepped to the side and held to door open, inviting Nadia in with a dramatic sweep of his hand. The blonde girl had added a bright green-and-purple scarf to her usual denim-jacket-and-khakis ensemble, probably to accommodate for the surprisingly cold weather outside.

"Hey, Nadia!" Alecto said, waving at their guest. "Feel free to sit down, there's plenty of room on the couch for one more! How've you been lately?"

"Pretty good, this week!" Nadia replied. placing the basket of brownies on the coffee table and plopping down on the couch with all the grace of a drunken elephant. "Oof, it feels good to get off my feet. I've had to work double shift today, since my dad's caught salmonella and has been banned from the kitchen until further notice."

"Uh oh. Is he okay?"

"Oh, yeah, it's not a severe case or anything, he doesn't need to go to the hospital. He just needs to learn to crack eggs without getting the egg bit all over his hands, that's all." Nadia gazed pointedly at Tempus who'd already scarfed down three brownies and was reaching for a fourth. "You're gonna end up getting sick if you eat too many of those, you know."

Tempus shrugged. "They're worth it."

"I guess I should take that as a compliment." Nadia leaned forward and delicately plucked one of the confections out of the basket. "You gonna have one, Alecto?"

"Uh? Oh, _ita_." Alecto grabbed a brownie and bit into it, the taste of thick, rich fudge chocolate filling her mouth. "Sorry, it's just been a pretty intense day."

"Kill any bad guys?"

"Uh, no, not anything like that. Just a bizarre day, that's all. Acquaintance of ours was being an arrogant self absorbed jerk, there was a fight, the son of Lord Death was transferred to our class, and our teacher tried to vivisect a specimen of an endangered species. It's, uh, certainly been a day."

Nadia looked like she was about to choke on her brownie. "Wait a minute. Okay. Before I make this conversation backpedal to the most important of those verbal bullet points, I want to know: does this have anything to do with that explosion we heard?"

"Um. Yes. You heard that?"

"It was sort of hard not to. Mom's been fretting about it all day, but I figured that since it was half a city away, it wasn't worth worrying about immediately." It wasn't surprising that Nadia wasn't concerned about the explosion that Kid's Soul Resonance had caused. Most non-meister citizens of Death City had a personal policy that as long as it didn't put their lives at direct and immediate risk, any strange goings-on could be safely brushed aside as "eh, the DWMA will handle it."

The concern of Nadia's mother, therefore, was a bit odd. Tempus seemed to share her sentiment, as he said through a mouthful of fudge, "Your mom does realize that explosions aren't exactly rare at the DWMA, right? Like, they're not distressingly common, but there are students there that can turn into missile launchers. There's a reason so much of the building is blast-proof. There's nothing to worry about."

Nadia shrugged. "Well, I know that. I've spent most of my life here, remember? But Mom grew up on a quiet little poultry farm in the ass end of nowhere. She raised free ranged chickens in this little town that wasn't even on the map, and the worst she had to deal with was foxes getting into her family's chicken coops. I don't think she'll ever really get used to this place in comparison, y'know?" Her gray eyes narrowed. "But enough about my mom. Let's go back to that 'son of Lord Death' you mentioned."

Tempus smirked. "Not as impressive as he sounds, believe me."

"I didn't even know that Lord Death _had_ a son," Nadia said, shifting and leaning forward with an expression of curiosity on her face.

In contrast, Alecto leaned back, sinking further into the couch cushions and making herself more comfortable. "I don't think a lot of people did," she said.

"What, so is he some sort of secret illegitimate child?"

"I don't think so. Nothing so dramatic, surely. I just don't think that it was ever really an important thing to know about Lord Death." Alecto took another bite of her brownie. "There's a lot students don't know about him. You don't know every detail of your principal's home life, do you?"

"I'm homeschooled. My _dad_ is my principal. So, yeah, I do."

"Oh. W-well, you see my point, right?"

Nadia nodded. "Yeah. So, what's he like?"

Tempus snorted. "He lost a duel he had a clear advantage in because he lost an inch of hair on one side of his bangs, tops. Also, he's short as hell."

Alecto frowned. "Everyone's short as hell to you, you're ludicrously tall. Kid also brought the fury of a Reaper down upon Black Star."

"Yeah, and he still _lost._"

"On a technicality!"

"You heard Maka. It was a legitimate win."

Nadia cleared her throat. "Um, I'm clearly missing out on a lot of context, so can I get the Cliffnotes here? Who are Black Star and Maka exactly?"

"Friends of ours," Tempus said lightly. "Well, Maka's a friend. Black Star's… well, he's an…"

"An arrogant, self-absorbed _spurius_ who doesn't realize just how lucky he is and _eum odi_." She spat the last words out like they were venom. They may as well have been; just thinking about Black Star's smug grin as he declared himself superior to the gods and called her "a small fish" made her blood boil.

"I was going to say 'an acquaintance,' but sure, that works, I guess." Tempus stretched out in his chair, and contented look on his face as he placed both hands on his belly appreciatively. "Those were some damn good brownies, Nadia. Anyway, Black Star, another friend of ours named Soul and Kid… Death the Kid, that's his name… got into a fight in front of the school. That's what the explosion was; it's take too long to explain all that needed to be explained, but everyone's fine, so it's not that concerning. Now, hold on to your seat cushions, because this next part is going to blow you away; Death the Kid? Lord Death's son? Grim Reaper, just like his dad? Incredibly proficient in both range and hand-to-hand combat, if what we saw was indicative of his true talents? Yeah, he _lost."_

Nadia looked about as confused as one would expect. "Yeah, you mentioned that. How'd he manage to pull that one off?"

"Because of a little trim off his hair, that's why," Tempus said. "Soul ended up cutting a bit of his bangs off during the fight - Soul's a weapon like I am, only he can turn into a scythe - and he ended up spitting blood and passing out because of it. Maka said it was because his symmetry was off or something, God only knows how she knew that. Duel was to either first bloodshed or professor's ruling, so…" he shrugged.

Alecto had practically crushed the brownie in her hand. "I don't get it. He'd basically _won._ He'd done a really good job in the fight, he was _incredible_… and he lost because he got a haircut. And now we're going to have to hear Black Star bragging about 'beating a reaper' for the next three weeks."

Nadia still looked completely lost. "Okay, yeah, next time we talk you're going to have to explain who these people are in more detail, because I still have no idea what you're going on about. So, besides that fact that he lost a duel over something really stupid like that, what's he like?"

Tempus shrugged. "Dunno. He's supposed to be in our class, but he wasn't there today. Apparently after the duel, Lord Death took him home, so we really didn't get to talk with him."

Alecto bit her lip. "I'd like to get to know him," she said decidedly.

"Yeah, he sounds like a really interesting kinda guy." Nadia stretched in her seat. "So," she said, giving Alecto and Tempus a pointed look. "Why haven't you two stopped by the Plenitude yet? Mom's been wanting to meet you guys forever."

A sheepish look crossed Alecto's features. "Ah, _mē miseret_. Going to restaurants has never really been our thing. We tend to stay home, let dinner be a small thing, so going out to eat tends to not occur to us."

"Well, that's just inconceivable." Nadia prodded Alecto in the shoulder with her index finger. "I'm putting my foot down. You two will come to Donald's Plenitude of Pies and have lunch with me within the next month or I'll make sure that Mom and Dad _don't_ shower you in free pizza like they totally would otherwise because you two are pretty much freaking heroes in their book."

"Free pizza, hm?" Tempus said. "That's a very tempting offer. Ally?"

"I don't see why not," Alecto stated simply.

"Then it's settled, then!" Nadia declared. "Now, now that that's out of the way, I want you to tell me all about this duel. Don't leave a single detail out."

* * *

Honeybush orange tea was perfect for the early morning, especially a morning as mild and gentle as the morning that came after the day of the duel. The sweet honeybush based balanced out the delightful tartness of the orange, giving it a very breakfast-like flavor. It wasn't a caffeinated tea, so it wasn't the type to grab if one needed a quick way to wake up. But Alecto was already awake, and she didn't think she would need the extra energy.

So it was the honeybush orange she had chosen that morning, and it was the honeybush orange that she took a sip of as she made her way through the halls of the Academy. Tempus was a couple steps ahead of her, and kept shooting her impatient glances over his shoulder. She ignored him. She knew why he was getting antsy; Tempus had made it a personal goal of is to always show up for class on time because, as he put it, "I can speed up my own time and I can turn into a clockwork weapon; if I'm _not_ punctual I'll be the butt of literally every joke ever."

"You know, you can go on ahead, if you'd like," Alecto said. "You don't have to stick behind for me."

"You sure?" Tempus said. "We stayed up pretty late talking to Nadia, and you're moving pretty slowly. I'm just making sure that you don't fall asleep in the hallway or something."

"You stayed up just as late as I did," Alecto pointed out in response, taking another sip of her tea and letting the hot honey taste warm her throat. "I'm not going to doze off. I just feel like taking it a little slower today, that's all. I'm not going to be late for class, either; I'm a time meister, it's very hard for me to be late to somewhere."

"Hasn't stopped you before," Tempus muttered. "Didn't you fall asleep on the steps one time?"

"That was one time. Go. I'll catch up with you in a bit."

"All right." With a _tick_ and a _tock_, Tempus was halfway down the hall. Alecto watched him leave before continuing her own walk, her thoughts turning leisurely in her head as she did so. She had to admit, it was nice to take it easy, without the stress of hunting kishin eggs resting on her shoulders.

But she still couldn't help but feel that she should be doing _something._ She had only gathered sixteen kishin eggs for Tempus. At first, that had seemed like a fine amount, but then she realized that most meister-weapon partners that had been there as long as they'd been had managed to gather at least twenty-five or thirty. Hell, Maka'd managed to get all ninety-nine, and it was through sheer misfortune that she and Soul were forced to start over. Alecto knew it was a bit unfair of her to compare herself to one of the top students in her class, but it didn't stop the feeling that she should have made more progress.

It certainly wasn't for lack of trying. They'd gone on far more mission than they had souls, which didn't exactly improve Alecto's views on the situation. Her footsteps slowed further as she thought about how hard she _tried._ She fought tooth and nail on every mission, refused to let herself give up and fail, and oftentimes Tempus had to practically drag her away from any hunt that was well out of their league. But no matter how hard she fought, no matter how many times she'd told herself "_qui audet adipiscitur,_" it never really seemed to matter. She got hurt on almost every mission they went out on, and she hadn't even managed to get a fourth of the allotted souls.

So what the _hell_ was she doing, just walking past the mission board without even glancing at it?

Any desire to "take it a little slower" was completely washed away by waves of self-doubt and determination in equal measures. She was about to turn around and go back, regardless of what Tempus would say about over-exerting herself, when an unknown yet bizarrely familiar voice cut through the cloud of worry fogging her mind.

"Are you sure this is the right floor, Kid?"

She looked up, her coal-colored eyes focusing. To her surprise, Death the Kid and his two partners were standing several yards down the hall, their backs turned to her. While she couldn't see their faces, she could easily tell who they were. There wasn't exactly a plethora of boys with three white stripes running through their hair, after all.

It was the taller girl with the long, caramel-blonde hair who'd spoken. "We've searched everywhere. Are you sure you know where we're going?"

"Of course I do," Death the Kid replied, his voice sharp.

"Really? Because it doesn't seem like it."

Alecto wasn't sure how the boy had managed to get lost in the Academy that his father had founded, but she wasn't going to question it. Goodness knew she'd managed to get turned around in the large, impossibly long halls a few times. Death the Kid was supposed to be in class Crescent Moon, like she and Tempus was, but he clearly wasn't sure where it was. She figured that she could be of some help in that regard, it was as good a way as any to introduce herself.

Approaching the three in front of her, she cleared her throat, gripping the thermos of tea tightly in her hands and letting its warmth relax her slightly. She was stepping a bit outside her comfort zone, initiating a conversation with someone she barely knew, but she wanted to get to know him. "Excuse me," she said, "but if you're looking for Crescent Moon, you're on the wrong floor. That classroom's upstairs."

The three of them turned to face her, each wearing three different expressions on their faces. Kid's expression was completely unreadable, his sharp yellow eyes boring into her. She also noticed that he'd evened out his bangs, fixing the impromptu haircut of the previous day. The shorter girl (Tempus had mentioned that he'd briefly introduced himself to them the day before, and that her name was Patti) looked more curious than anything, her large blue eyes full of interest. The taller girl (Liz, Tempus had said her name was) simple furrowed her eyes in perplexed recognition. "Hey, you're one of the kids from yesterday, right?" Liz said. "The one who wanted us to kick your friends' asses."

Alecto could feel her face redden. "_I-Ita._ Um, I mean yes." She held out one of her hands, offering a rather nervous attempt at a smile. "My name's Alecto Bellatore. I'm a meister here. The two of you," she directed her words specifically towards Liz and Patti, "have already met my weapon partner, Tempus."

After a brief, Kid took her and and shook it. "How did you know we were looking for class Crescent Moon?" he asked.

"Educated guess," Alecto explained. "I'm in class Crescent Moon, too. Yesterday our professor told us that you were joining our class. If you want, I can show you where it is."

"All right," Kid said. "You said it was a floor up, right?"

"Yup! Come on, I know the shortest way to get there." Beckoning for the three to follow her, Alecto resumed her walk through the hallway, taking another sip from her tea. _There,_ she told herself, see?_ Introduced yourself, didn't bungle it up, offered a helping hand. Not so difficult, was it?_

The thought cheered her up a bit, and she began to speak again, this time a bit quicker-paced. "I feel like I should warn you in advance that the two boys you fought yesterday, Black Star and Soul, are in our class. I don't think they'll try to give you any more trouble, especially not Soul, he's actually a pretty decent guy, and Black Star's ego's been sated enough, though I _still_ think that winning on a technicality doesn't actually count. Speaking of which, that Soul Resonance you three did yesterday was incredible! I don't think I've ever seen a student pull off a mo-we like that." She paused at the bottom of the stairs as she realized her error. "Tch, _vae._"

"Is something wrong?" Kid asked. Alecto wasn't sure if he'd understood her Latin cussing (She wouldn't put it past him to have a basic understanding of Latin, being the son of Death and all) or if he'd just picked up on the irate at slightly embarrassed tone of her voice. She was willing to place her denarii on the latter; profanity had a way of gettings its meaning across, regardless of language or context.

She sighed and ran a hand through her rose-colored hair. "Nah, nothing particularly important. My accent just slipped, that's all." She'd long since accepted that she was never going to be able to perfectly mimic an American accent and, more to the point, she was perfectly content with pronouncing her a's and her u's differently, because she knew she could pronounce words the same way, say, Maka or Tempus did, should she try.

It was just that damned v-sound that had always tripped her up, mocking her with its difficulty. It wasn't a lack of effort that hindered her; hell, her parents had enrolled her in speech therapy not long after they adopted her. (It was actually in speech therapy that she learned that her accent was an accent, and not some sort of bizarre speech impediment.) But every time she thought she had it under control, she'd end up messing up somehow, as if part of her subconscious didn't _want_ to let go of bad verbal habits.

Kid spoke again. "I've never heard that sort of accent before. Where are you from?"

"Uh, Maine?" Alecto shot a sheepish grin over her shoulder as she began ascending the stairs. "To be honest, I don't know where I was born. My parents adopted me when I was five, and I don't remember much from before that. Neither did they, really. I know that all they knew of me was my name and my birthday, and that I spoke more Latin than English." She neglected to mention that Latin was the _only_ language she could speak when she was young. He probably thought she was weird enough as it was.

"Latin?" To her surprise, though, Kid didn't seem weirded out. He actually sounded a little curious, and Alecto had to quickly look away to hide her confused blush.

Curiosity directed towards her by fellow meisters was not a thing that Alecto was altogether used used to. Alecto was used to fading into the background, avoiding anything that would get herself caught in the unified gaze of student gossip. "Yeah," she said, a little bit quieter than before. "That's what the accent is, apparently."

"Whoa!" Patti exclaimed. She had a very expressive voice, so much so that Alecto could perfectly envision the look of childlike awe and excitement on her face. "Isn't Latin supposed be a super duper old language?!"

"_Ita vērō_," Alecto said, reaching the top of the stairs and feeling the sudden urge to show off a little. "_Nemo loquuntur lingua latina._" She turned around. "_Quid tibi? Loquerisne lingua latina?_"

Three equally confused stares was the answer she got.

"Ah, didn't think so." It seemed that Grim Reapers didn't get introductory lessons in dead languages. There was a certain irony in that. "Come on, we're almost to class."

"If Latin is really old, how come you speak it?" Liz asked as they walked.

"Well, I don't have a particularly pronounced natural vocabulary, I was pretty young when I learned English, so it wasn't long before I knew English better. Most of what I learned I actually taught myself later on. I actively speak it because it feels more natural for me. As for why that is, well, like I said, I don't know. Maybe my birth parents were gladiators or something," she joked, starting to feel a bit self-conscious as she told more about herself. She stopped right in front of the door for class Crescent Moon. "Well, here we are," she said. "Class Crescent Moon, as taught by Professor Franken Stein. Class starts in about…two, three minutes?" Tempus was much better at accurately estimating time than she was. She supposed it was a fringe benefit of being able to turn into a weaponized clock.

She reached out to open the door, but stopped, her hand hovering a couple inches away from the handle. "Hey, uh… why _did_ you get into a fight with Black Star? I mean, I know why he picked a fight with _you,_ that's just something he'd do because he's an idiot. But what stake did you have in all that?" She could tell the difference between a person who was invested in a fight and person who was just going along with it after getting attacked with no real concern or anger, having been on the opposite side of such emotions several times, the latter more than she cared to admit. Kid had definitely been in the former category. No one who was in the latter let loose a Soul Resonance that powerful.

As it turned out, her suspicions had been right, as Kid's expression darkened a little. Behind him, Liz gave a roll of her dusky blue eyes in a _here-we-go-again_ manner. "He broke one of the spikes on the school," the young reaper said, his eyes flashing with anger at remembering events Alecto knew nothing of. "He completely messed up it symmetry, it's beautiful balance…"

_Symmetry._ There was that word again. Maka had said that was why he had passed out the day before despite not having a scratch on him. "Um…_Mē miseret_ if I'm being rude, but…" In her peripheral vision, she could see both Liz and Patti motioning for her to not continue her line of dialogue, with Patti shaking her head vehemently and Liz making an X-sign with her forearms. She continued regardless. "What is it you find so important about symmetry?"

Kid gave her a disbelieving amber stare as Liz slapped her palm to her face in the background. "Are you serious?" he asked incredulously. "Symmetry is it ultimate form of beauty! It is the purest aesthetic expression of order and balance and everything beautiful in this world. The building that this school is housed in is a perfect representation of that, perfectly balanced on both sides. To watch him vandalize such balance was unbearable, intolerable!"

After Kid finished his brief by loud rant, the silence that followed was practically smothering. Alecto stared at Kid for a few seconds, trying to process this information before her brain did a quick reboot and she shrugged. "All right." She spent her free time drinking tea and beating up bad guys with her best friend who was also a clock. Lord Death's son being agog over symmetry? Not even remotely the weirdest thing she'd ever seen. "I'm not going to pretend I fully grasped all of that, but I'll take your word for it."

Kid opened his mouth to speak, probably to explain more on the wonders of symmetry, when the familiar ding dong dong ding of the second morning bell sounded, alerting students that they needed to be in class now. Alecto flinched slightly at the sound at the sound before placing her hand firmly at the handle. "I think that's our cue," she said, pushing the door open and standing to the side, making a motion with her hand that indicated for the three to go first. "_Post te._"

"Thank you," Kid said. "I appreciate the help." He seemed a little reluctant to admit that he needed help, probably a little embarrassed about the fact that he'd gotten lost in the school run by his own father.

"No problem," Alecto said, shooting him and the Thompson sisters a friendly smile as the three walked past her into the classroom. Alecto noticed the collective class's eyes upon the reaper boy and his twin pistols as they entered, and wasn't exactly eager to receive the same attention by association. With a prompt _tick_, she shoved time out of sync and made her way past them, walking up to the empty seat next to Tempus. _Tock_.

Tempus gave her a quick, knowing glance and a curious smirk that she fended off with a sharp glare. Down by the door, Kid looked a little startled by her sudden shift in position, his sharp yellow gaze flickering between the door and Alecto, and Liz looked a _lot_ startled. Patti just looked gleefully wondrous as she took in her surroundings.

Hushed whispers began to rise as the three sat down, and Tempus seemed to take this as an opportunity. With a _tick_, he leaned towards Alecto and whispered, "So, what's he like?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Seriously? Don't bullshit me, Ally, I saw you walking in with mister talk-of-the-town over there. You met him. What's he like?"

"I don't know, okay?" Alecto hissed quietly, keeping an eye on the door for when Dr. Stein inevitably rolled into the room. "We only talked for a few minutes, and even then it was mostly me. All I really know is that he really likes symmetry and that's why he fought Black Star."

"What?"

"Black Star broke one of the spikes on the school building. Messed with the symmetry. I don't know. If you want to get to know him so bad, you go talk to him."

"I just might," Tempus replied matter-of-factly. "Assuming your initial impression of him was a positive one."

"Wait, what? You're the people person, why are you letting me " Alecto said.

"Well, yeah, but you've met the guy. Thoughts?"

Alecto thought about it. There'd been a certain… _something_ about Kid, a quiet confidence that indicated that he was perfectly aware of his capabilities as a meister. Honestly, she kind of envied that sort of self-assuredness. He hadn't spoken much, but he hadn't really _needed_ to. And he'd certainly seemed nice enough.

He was… "He's interesting. And yeah, I think I'd like to talk to him again."

"Alrighty then." Tempus leaned back in his seat and resynchronized time with a _tock,_ his eyes trained on the back of Kid's head with an intrigued expression on his face.

And the more Alecto thought about it, the more she realized that she _definitely_ wanted to talk to Kid again.

* * *

_A/N - Yay, they finally met! It only took them 60,000 words to get there. You can probably tell that I'm a little hesitant about writing Kid. I don't want to end up writing him out of character at all because I adore him too much. Someday I will get over all these hang-ups regarding my writing. Someday._

_We also get to learn a little about Alecto's history in this chapter. It may not be much, but I'd say it's a pretty important "not much." Of course, I say that because I am pretty much all knowing when it comes to Alecto and her Alecto-ness. :)  
_

_First person to guess which book Alecto was reading at the start gets... well, they don't get anything, but it'd be cool to see who guesses it!_

_On to the Latin!_

_**Ita:** Basically means "Yes." I say "Basically" because Latin doesn't really have a concrete word for "yes," instead choosing to go for statements of affirmation ("Do you dance?" "I dance") "Ita" is basically an adverb that Romans used when such statements would make the flow of the conversation awkward. Alecto's later statement of "**Ita ****vērō**" basically means "It is true, yes" with vērō being an emphasis on the truth aspect.__  
_

___**Spurius:** Means "bastard" in the "That bastard!" way, not in the illegitimate child way. I think that's basically going to be Alecto's go-to insult for black Star from now on, that's twice she's used it to refer to him._

_____**Eum odi:** "I hate him"_

_______**Nemo loquuntur lingua latina:** If my translations are correct, this should mean "No one speaks Latin." I wanted ti to say "No one speaks Latin anymore," but I wasn't sure how to include the "anymore" while still maintaining some semblance of grammatical correctness. Hell, I'm not even sure if what I have is grammatically correct. The basic message of the sentence still gets across: Latin is considered a dead language.  
_

_______(My sister is loomking over my shoulder and has just informed me that "Dead Language" could totally be a viable ship name for Alecto and Kid. Like I said, my sister is awesome.)_

**_________Quid tibi? Loquerisne lingua latina?:_**_________ "What about you? Do you speak Latin?" Alecto is totally showing off at this point._

**_________Post_**___________** te:** Literally means "After you." I couldn't find if there was a roman equivalent to the meaning of the phrase, so I just translated it literally because I was lazy and needed to get the chapter out there._

___________Chapter 17 will be the start of a new arc (admittedly not a particularly plot-relevant arc, but it's going to have its moments of importance), and will be up in a few days. In the meantime, please feel free to favorite and leave a review!_

___________- Diana "Nocte"_


	17. Chapter 17

_A/N - All right, only a three day gap between chapters, we're getting back on track! This chapter probably would have been finished earlier, but I needed a bit of time to plot out how exactly it would go. I wanted certain events to happen, but I wasn't sure how to get to them. But I've figured them out, so there we go! Plus, action scenes. Just... action scenes. So frustrating to write._

_This is essentially a filler arc, save for those certain events that I mentioned earlier. This also takes place during episodes 7 and 8. God, was that an intense arc. This chapter is quite a bit shorter than the last one, I'll admit, but then again the last chapter was 6000 words. That was a rare occurence and will not happen often._

_I'd like to thank Crona. ismyspiritanimal, Hetomi, Superhero17 for reviewing! In responde to __Crona. ismyspiritanimal's review, I can say that I'm really glad that Alecto is relatable. Idealized hero-figures that are the most badass people to ever exist are all well and good (goodness knows that people don't give escapism fiction enough credit), there's also something to be said for relatable characters. To Hetomi, I say thank you very much, and I'll try to keep my schedule on a quicker, more consistent pattern, like it was before winter break. To __Superhero17, I say that Tempus will not be meeting Kid until the arc after the next one. So, about 5-6 chapters after this one. A shame, I know. :( I am pretty excited to write them interacting._

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen - Temporal Resonance - The Vampire Who Eats Souls?! Part 1**

* * *

"Any thoughts?"

"We could not go on any missions. That would be great."

"That option's not on the table right now."

"Really? What's gotten into you? You're not usually this bad when it comes to missions. Bad, yes, but not to these levels."

"It's just… not an option, Tempus." Alecto stared up at the mission board with flat black eyes, her gaze scanning over each and every mission with precision. She knew that Tempus was having his doubts, but she couldn't afford to sit about complacently forever. She'd already gone nearly a full month without having gone on any missions. She didn't want to wait any longer before getting back on the wagon. Besides, all of her other acquaintances were on missions of some sort or another. What better time to go on one?

"It's a shame we couldn't go help Maka and Soul in Europe," Tempus commented. He'd forgone his blazer and vest that day as it was particularly warm, instead just wearing a black tie and a white button-up with his dandelion-yellow slacks. "They went to Italy, right? Maybe we could have gone to Rome, see the sights! The Colosseum, the Roman pantheon, the _cuisine_! Ah, such a shame we missed out on that amazing Italian food..."

"Mm." Alecto didn't respond beyond that, but the truth was, she _did_ kind of want to visit Italy. She always had, ever since she was a young girl. Chalk it up to her inner Latin, she supposed. "What about that one? That looks doable."

"...Ally, that's a three-star mission."

"Oh."

Tempus reached over her head. "Why don't we start with something a little low-risk. Not every missions has to be a life-or-death struggle, after all." He tapped a slender brown finger against one of the placards. "What about this one? This one looks pretty easy. Newly born Kishin egg in Vancouver, not particularly powerful…"

"We're not out of practice or the like, Tempus. And I'm not looking for an easy run. I'm looking to help people and get you the soul quota you need." Her eyes fell on a one-star mission near the bottom of the board, and a single word on it caught her attention. "Vampire?" she murmured.

"Eh?"

"Look at this one." She plucked the placard off the wall. "A mission to eliminate the 'vampire Nosferatu.' He was a man in Germany who developed a taste for not only human souls, but also human blood. He drains his victims dry and steals their souls after they're dead. He sounds like a problem that needs to be taken care of. Thoughts?"

"I, uh. I like my blood to remain where it is, thank you very much," Tempus said, shifting nervously. "You sure we can't go to Vancouver? I've heard it's really nice this time of year!"

"If you don't want to go, I'm not going to force you to accept the mission," Alecto said. "But like you said, Vancouver's easy. Someone else will pick it up quickly. This guy already sounds like he's done a fair bit of damage, and if someone doesn't stop him, he'll do even more."

Tempus chewed on his lip. "Okay, then," he said. " You've got a point, and Germany is pretty nice. But if I end up as some batty blooduscking bastard's breakfast, I'm holding you personally responsible, do you hear me?"

"I'll keep that in mind," Alecto said. She approached the receptionist desk, placard in hand, and cleared her throat. "Excuse me?"

The receptionist looked up from the papers she was looking over, dimples forming in her round cheeks as she smiled up at her and her partner. "Oh, hello, you two!" she said in that false saccharine tone that all receptionists seemed to share. "I haven't seen you two in a while. You haven't been up to any trouble, I hope?"

"_Nōn_, actually, we haven't been up to anything," Alecto said, laying the placard on the counter. "Can you tell us anything more about the vampire Nosferatu?"

"Oh, you're looking into taking on that mission? Hm, well, there's not much I can tell you that the card doesn't. He's a nasty one, been causing all sorts of trouble up in Essen. He's racked up a body count of six or seven already."

"Six _or_ seven?" Alecto questioned. Usually, if a Kishin egg's body count was in the single digits it was pretty easy to pinpoint a concrete number. Subsequently, the unsure way the receptionist had stated the numbers was cause for confusion.

The receptionist sighed. "Seven people have gone missing in a local area of Essen in the past month, but only six bodies have been found," she explained

"That's… concerning," Alecto said, a chill of fear running down her spine.

The receptionist nodded. "Are you sure you wanna take this one on, Miss Bellatore? This may be a one star mission, but Nosferatu's nothing to sneeze at."

The receptionist probably meant it kindly, the way any adult would when talking to a kid about to take on a difficult task. But the innocent stirred up a whirlwind of self-doubt, and Alecto's voice was a little harsher than she'd intended as she pushed the card forward and said, "If I can't take on a single one-star mission, than I'd make a very poor meister. I'm taking the Nosferatu mission, so please mark this appropriately."

Looking a little taken aback, the receptionist nodded and wrapped a ribbon around the card that read "WORKING" in large, bold letters. When the mission was done, the card would be stamped to mark its completion. "You two be careful, now," she said.

"We will!" Tempus said. As Alecto placed the card back on the mission board, the ribbon clearly signaling its status as a claimed mission, she could feel his gaze boring into the back of her skull. "Right, Ally?"

"Don't you worry about me," Alecto said. "I don't intend on losing this."

* * *

Essen, Germany was the classified ninth-largest city in Germany, with over five hundred and sixty thousand thousand people, and yet as Alecto and Tempus were walking down the dimly moonlit streets, the two of them couldn't see a single person around. It was to be expected, Alecto supposed; All six of the known victims had disappeared from this neighborhood, and after the seventh person had disappeared no one wanted to be missing person number eight. The neighborhood was empty when Alecto and Tempus had arrived, and it was likely going to stay empty until Nosferatu was dealt with.

The only person that the two of them had seen was a short black woman with thick dreads and a piercing in her right brow who'd been watching the desolate road from the window of her small, . When she'd seen the two adolescents roaming the roads, the woman had thrown open her window and shouted out something in agitated German.

Tempus and Alecto had shared a confused glance. "Um, we don't speak German!" Tempus shouted back. "We're with the Death Weapon Meister Academy. We're here to help."

The woman scoffed. "You want to fight Nosferatu?" she had snapped in stilted, heavily-accented English. "You cannot! He is undying as long as there is blood to be spilled! Go back to your Academy and tell Lord Death that Nosferatu is far beyond two children! Go, and save yourselves before your blood becomes his!" With that, she had slammed the window shut and closed the blinds, obscuring herself from view.

Even hours later, with the sun having long set and the grinning moon looming over the city below, thinking about how matter-of-fact the woman had sounded chilled Alecto to the bone. She took a sip of her tea to try and calm her nerves. The tea was anhui emerald; a green tea, it didn't have the sweet morning taste of honeybush or the same richness as the vanilla tea. If Alecto had to put the flavor or the tea to words, she would describe it as the way grass smelled after a rainfall; a light sharpness that warmed her while still keeping her alert.

"Are you sure tonight's the night?" Tempus said.

"You remember what the authorities here had said. A week passes, and a body shows up and another person goes missing. There's no patterns in the victims, nothing connecting them except for the time frame and the noise that people here the night before a body shows up." The officer had likened it to hearing the screech of a bat and the howl of a banshee at the same time, a wicked cry that struck fear into the hearts of all who heard it. "It's been a week since the last person disappeared." She clenched her free hand, her right hand, into a fist to hide the faint trembling of her hands. "_Vae_. It's too late to save him. But at least we can keep Nosferatu from killing anyone else."

"Yeah." Tempus glanced around, the yellow irises of his eyes glinting in the dulled light of the moon and the streetlamps. "I wonder what Soul and Maka are up too. Probably having a much better time that we are. Enjoying the sights, eating the food, not having to worry about any impending death…"

Alecto stopped mid-step, the short heel of her boot hitting the ground with a resolute _clack_. "Why are you so worried, Tempus?" she asked. "I'm not going to allow myself to fail in my duties as meister and protector. You know that"

"I know," Tempus said. "But after Vegas, and Sid and Stein… Our last two fights have ended in technical wins that were also disasters. I don't want to go for three in a row." He glanced around. "Though, I don't think this will end up _quite_ like Vegas. There's no fountain."

"Or any blackjack tables."

Alecto had to suppress a mean grin as she watched Tempus shudder in response. "God, don't even remind me. II don't want anything to do with the inside of a casino ever aga-"

His voice, and all other sound, was cut off by a loud cry. To say that it was a completely inhuman noise was a gross understatement. While short, it was loud and shrill, piercing straight through Alecto's eardrums and echoing throughout her very soul. She understood why the officer had likened it to a banshee's cry. "_Pro di immortales_!" she gasped.

"Gyah!" Tempus slammed his palms over his ears, his face contorting into an expression of discomfort. "What the _hell_ was that?!"

"I think it was our target!" she replied. "Ugh, _horribile erat._"

"I have no idea what you just said, but I agree wholeheartedly," Tempus said, tensing up. "We need to go find him before he gets away, or else we'll end up having to track him down for another week, and I don't want to spend any more time hunting a vampire than is absolutely necessary!"

"I know," Alecto said, placing a firm right palm on the center of his chest. "Weapon form, _sīs_."

"Yup!" With a glow of yellowish light, Tempus shifted into his weapon form, latching himself to Alectos hand, gears whirring and clockwork spears spinning into their standard twelve-thirty position. _"Got any plans for if we catch this guy?"_

"_When_ we catch this guy," Alecto said, "I'm going to drive you straight through his heart. That's how you kill vampires, right? Stabbing them in the heart?"

_"I'm not a wooden stake, Ally."_

"I don't particularly think it matters, you're still pointy and dangerous. Come on!" _Tick._ As Alecto and Tempus forced their personal time bubble to move quicker, slowing time around them, Alecto couldn't help but feel a little uplifted. She was doing something, she was going out and fulfilling her duty as a meister. She was hunting a Kishin egg who threatened the safety of civilians and she was gathering souls for her weapon partner.

She moved forward, her boots colliding the the sidewalk loudly as she ran, trying to determine just where the sound had originated from. The cry had seemed to come from all around, but the streets were clear. There was a small, wooded park nearby, with walking paths surrounding by thick brush and trees; was that where Nosferatu was? It made sense; the park was dark and guarded enough for an ambush.

She took a sharp right turn and ran straight for the park, alert for any signs of their target. The park was dark, the ink black silhouettes of the trees obscuring the moon and casting the winding pathways in a dark shadow that made navigation so much more difficult. _I should have brought a flashlight,_ Alecto thought, slowing down to a quick walk so she didn't end up tripping on a darkness-obscured root.

_Tock. "Ally, look!"_

Alecto stopped, staring in horror at a dark shape on the ground. "That's…"

_"The last victim."_

A thin sliver of yellow moonlight had shone through the trees and illuminated the shape, revealing it to be the pallid corpse of who had once been a young man. The dark curly hair and sharp cheekbones had matched the description they had been given of the last person to have gone missing. Shaking slightly, Alecto moved closer, kneeling down next to the body. His face was contorted into a permanent look of dull terror, his glassy blue eyes staring into the abyss of dark purple that was the sky above them. He was as pale as snow, and his skin was dotted with small pinpricks, like the kind left behind by a needle and syringe. _"He's been completely brained of blood,"_ Tempus said, horror tinting his voice.

Another soul-shaking screech split the air, much louder and more human-sounding this time, and a previously obscured figure stepped into view. It was a man, tall with broad and hunched-over shoulders. His head was completely devoid of any hair, and his eyes were sunken beads of pure black His malicious grin revealed that each and every one of his teeth had been filed down to a sharp point. Blood dripped from his chin and splattered against the wool of his thick black trenchcoat. "Blood…" he hissed. "Blood and souls… bring power. Want more…" His voice wasn't anything like the mad screech that she'd heard previously. It was a quiet voice, with only the barest hint of a harsh undertone that usually characterized the madness that corrupt the souls of monsters like him. If Alecto didn't know better, she wouldn't have even been able to guess that he was a Kishin egg.

"Nosferatu," Alecto said, her voice hushed. She placed the thermos of tea down on the path as gently as she could, which was not an easy feat considering how much her hands were shaking.

The man only just barely seemed to notice her presence, his hungry eyes focused on nothing in particular. "Nosferatu… power. Blood and souls… delicious. delicious _power._"

"Killer Nosferatu!" Alecto was shouting now as she got to her feet, clenching her hands into fists. "Your soul is a Kishin egg and is a threat to all of mankind! I, Alecto Bellatore, meister at Death Weapon Meister Academy, have come to put a stop to your mad crimes!"

"Stop…?" Nosferatu tilted his head at this, his grin opening even further to the point where Alecto thought that the corners of his mouth were going to tear wide open. "Can't… stop. Want power… so much power… won't let you stop me!"

"A glint in the darkness caught her eye a millisecond before Nosferatu lunger forward, swinging something towards Alecto's throat. _Tick._ She threw up her arm. _Tock._ Whatever the bald man - if he could even be called a man at this point - had tried to attack her with broke with a small snap from the force as soon as it made contact with Tempus's buckler, and a thin needle fell to the floor, its metal point shining brilliantly in the sliver of moonlight that shone upon the scene.

_Tick. "A syringe?"_ Tempus questioned and Alecto leapt away from the vampire. _"What the hell did he try to inject you with?"_

"I'm not sure. Probably some sort of sedative or something." She gritted her teeth. "Or maybe it was empty and he just wanted to take some of my blood with it."

_"Ugh, that son of a bitch." Tock. "He means business. Let's get his soul quickly, shall we?"_

"Gladly," Alecto muttered.

Nosferatu stared blankly at the broken remains of the syringe in his hands before casting it aside and drawing a long, thick kitchen blade out of his trench coat. "Doesn't matter… gonna take your soul!" He swiped at Alecto with the knife, the rusted tip missing the bridge of Alecto's nose by mere centimeters.

_Tick._ Alecto charged forward, bashing the face of Tempus's shield against the man's face as soon as time resynchronized with a _tock,_ sending him flying backwards and crashing into the bushes on the side of the path. "I'll be keeping my soul, thank you very much," she snarled. "When I'm done here, you won't ever be able to kill another person again."

"How…" Nosferatu struggled to his feet, beady eyes as wide as saucers. "So fast…"

Alecto didn't answer. _Tick._ Instead, she ran forward again, thrusting her arm forward and piercing the flesh of his left shoulder with the tip of Tempus's spear. _Tock._ He howled, his voice reaching an impossibly inhuman pitch as he reached up and grasped the pole of the spear. _Tick._ She pulled away, twisting the spear as it left the gaping hole she'd put in his flesh. _Tock._

Nosferatu doubled over, his face twisted into a grimace. "Y...You!" He hissed, crouching low to the ground. "You… you… you…" Then, in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

Alecto took an instinctive step back. "Where'd he go?!" she exclaimed. "Where did you go, you coward?!"

_"Ally, look out!"_

Alecto glanced down at her partner for only a split second, but it was a split second too long. Something large came crashing down on her shoulders, driving her into the ground. There was a stab of pain in her right leg that stood out amidst the general ache that the force of the blow had caused. A voice hissed above her head, "Your soul… will be delicious." The bastard had leapt into the air, using her confusion to ambush her from the sky.

Alect heard the faint sound of a blade moving through the air, and knowing that she couldn't desynchronize herself away from this predicament with Nosferatu's boot still squarely lodged between her shoulder blades, she desperately shouted out, "Tempus, help me out here!"

Tempus didn't respond. He didn't have to. Quick enough where Alecto wouldn't have even noticed it is she hadn't been, he was in his human form, shoving Nosferatu away. "Stay the _hell_ away from my meister," he growled.

For what felt like the millionth time that night, Alecto pull herself to her feet. "Thanks," she said. The pain in her right leg continued, exacerbated by her movements. She looked down to see that she was bleeding from a shallow cut in her thigh. _Vae._

"Don't thank me," Tempus said, moving to stand by her. "I'm your shield, I'm here to protect you in situations like this. Just.. when I say to look out, please actually look out, okay?"

"You don't have to worry about that," Alecto said. "Without that element of surprise he had the first time, he's got nothing." She raised her voice. "Isn't that right, Nosferatu?"

Nosferatu turned to face her. "You…" His gaze focused on the blood trickling from her wound. "Blood!" he exclaimed. "Heh...heheheh...sweet, sweet blood!" He ran his tongue over his sharpened teeth, mouth opened wide. "He ran out" He pointed a long finger at the corpse "I… want... more… _blood!_"

* * *

_A/N - When trying to figure out just what Alecto and Tempus were doing while Maka and Soul were dealing with Crona in Italy, I had eventually come across the idea of maybe having them hunt a vampire-esque being, but discarded it because it seemed a bit out of place. But then I remembered that Mosquito had a pretty big vampire motif going on, so maybe it wasn't that out of place. So, here we are._

_Some of you might be wondering why this arc is set in Germany if vampires are more associated in the minds of pop culture with Romania (specifically, Transylvania). The answer to that question is that the 1922 film Nosferatu was a German expressionist unauthorized film adaptation of the Dracula novel, directed by a German director and starring German actors. Thus, Germany seemed most appropriate. __Isn't it weird what you can learn in a Wikipedia marathon?_

_Speaking of learning, it's Latin time!_

_**Pro di immortales** - "By the Gods!" Basically "Oh my god!"_

___**Horribile erat** - "That was horrible"_

___Hm, not much Latin this chapter. Mostly stuff I've already translated. Anyways, next chapter will be posted either tomorrow or Monday. In the meantime, please feel free to favorite and leave a review telling me what you think!_

___- Diana "Nocte"_


	18. Chapter 18

_A/N - Aw, man, I was like 400 words away from being able to post this last night and keep on schedule. As it stands, uploading early the next morning isn't too bad by comparison. Well, it's not like I made you wait two weeks after a world-shattering cliffhanger that would change the way you viewed this story forever, so I think a few hour's delay isn't too terrible._

_I'd like to think Carolinefdq for reviewing and for making me completely unable to take my own minor villain character seriously. The fun part, though, is that the main character from the Nosferatu film isn't actually named "Nosferatu." Nosferatu is the term the film used in the place of "vampires" to keep themselves from getting sued by the holders of the Dracula copyright. (That didn't really work out for them. They got sued, and lost, and most copies of the film were destroyed). The Dracula rip-off was named "Count Orlock."_

_Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter._

_DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen - Temporal Resonance - The Vampire Who Eats Souls?! Part 2**

* * *

Alecto ducked just in time as Nosferatu swung his carving knife, the gleaming blade cutting through the air where her throat used to be. _Tick._ She straightened up, reaching out for Tempus just as he turned back into his weapon form, the feeling of the leather glove connected intertwined with her fingers a familiar and somewhat comforting sensation. "Twelve o'clock, now!"

_Tock. "Got it!"_ The gears on the buckler whirred and spun as the clockwork hands spun into place, parallel with her upper arm. _Tick_. Alecto grabbed Nosferatu's outstretched arm. Tock. She swung her right arm forward, knocking the vampire in the temple with the side of Tempus's buckler. The bald man staggered back from the force for a brief moment before wrenching his arm away from Alecto's grip and stabbing the knife towards the general area of her heart. She whirled in a half-circle to block it, the steel of the blade clashing against Tempus's polished bronze surface with a loud _clang_ that echoed amidst the silence that covered the wooded park. Then she jabbed the spears backwards, feeling the force of the tips of the hands cutting into Nosferatu's sides and tearing a shallow pathway through his skin.

_Tick._ Alecto moved a few yards away, turning to face Nosferatu. _Tock._ He dropped the knife and clutched his side, the wound clearly visible even through the thick wool of his trench coat. He hissed and crouched low to the ground, glaring at her in such a way that made her grateful that looks could not, in fact, kill. Then he leapt up into the air, quicker than she could blink.

But he'd lost the upper hand he'd gained, and now that Alecto knew what he was doing, she was able to counter it. As he descended, his boot aimed for her face, she quickly threw her arm up, allowing the blow to collide with her shield then. Nosferatu, however, used Tempus as a springboard, jumping up and using the force from the leap to make Alecto stumble and fall backwards, landing solidly on the rough ground of the pathway. _"Vae!"_ she swore, rolling out of the way and jumping to her feet as Nosferatu landed again.

_"It's weird,"_ Tempus observed._ "Beyond the immediate sensation of pain, he doesn't seem to be affected by what we're dishing out at all."_ In her mind's eye, Alecto could see his concerned expression, his eyebrows knitted together in analytic concentration

He had a point. The two of them had practically torn Nosferatu's shoulder apart, and yet his left arm was still as limber as his other one. He didn't even seem to be registering the pain, his only focus on the blood still streaming from the wound on Alecto's leg. Kishin Eggs tended to be more resistant to pain and injury than the average run-off-the-mill asshole, but this was ridiculous.

"This is bad," she said. "He's got us on the defensive, Tempus. If we keep fighting like this, it's only a matter of time before he lands a hit that takes us down."

_"Gee, if only you had a weapon partner whose weapon form was specifically meant for this kind of fighting. Oh, wait."_

"That's not gonna work forever. We need to force ourselves back into offensive," Alecto said, ducking away from another swing of Nosferatu's knife, "and fast." She wasn't about to lose against some German freak with a penchant for sanguiphilia. _Tick._ "Back to twelve-thirty mode, _nunc_!"

Tempus's hands swung into position just as Alecto aimed a jab at Nosferatu's wrist. _Tock._ Nosferatu screamed as the spear broke skin, and pulled his hand away. He didn't let go of the knife, though, and in fact seemed to be holding it tighter than ever.

"Impossible!" Alecto snapped. "That should have disarmed you, easily!"

Nosferatu cackled. "Can't… can't feel pain… blood takes pain away… sweet, sweet blood…"

_"The blood takes away the pain?"_ Tempus echoed. _"Jeez, no wonder the guy's so desperate for the stuff. With his mind warped by madness the way it is, blood must be like some form of drug to him."_

"Blood… brings relief," Nosferatu continued. "Tucks away the pain… and souls...bring… power."

"Killing innocent civilians and stealing their souls doesn't make you more powerful!" Alecto shouted. "It just makes you more evil!"

Nosferatu grinned, the yellowed surface of his teeth glinting wickedly in the dull moonlight. "You… want my soul...said so yourself. So...what makes you...so much different?" he asked, lingering on each word as if he were trying to force her to have some sort of earth-shattering revelation about her own morals.

Unfortunately for him, she had heard the exact same spiel from a dozen monsters just like her, and she was so very sick of it. "Don't even think that you can compare us," she said coldly. _Tick._ She ran forward, diving down and delivering a well-placed sweeping kick to his legs. _Tock._ "I hunt _spuria_ like you to fulfill my duties as a meister." She moved away as he fell backward. "I track down Kishin eggs to live up to the responsibilities I have as a weapons meister and a student at the DWMA." She tensed up as the would-be vampire stood up with rage filling his eyes, preparing herself to duck out of the way again. "I fight against killers and soul thieves to protect innocent people! I don't kill people just for the heck of it, I don't seek souls for my own game, and I don't hunt anyone unless their evil actions have corrupted their souls beyond repair! I'm nothing like you!"

Nosferatu laughed again, crouching low to the ground. "So noble… noble, noble child… your soul will be…" A long pause. "...scrumptious."

_"Too bad for you, then, because you're not getting a taste of either of our souls!"_ Tempus said. _"Got any ideas, Ally?"_

Alecto narrowed her eyes, taking a couple steps back to analyze the situation. The bloodlust madness that had taken ahold of Nosferatu's soul had affected his ability to feel pain. He seemed completely unaffected what should have been some pretty serious long-term agony. Pain was usually vital in taking down an enemy; pain distracted foes, made them mess up and often revealed vulnerabilities previously kept well-hidden. Without that, Alecto was at a much bigger disadvantage than she liked to admit.

But he wasn't immune. He felt immediate pain, the screaming sensation of a sharp edge tearing through skin and muscle. If she could find some way of exploiting that, perhaps she could take the upper hand. "I've got a couple," she said. "They mostly involve dealing a great deal of damage in as short an amount of time as possible."

_"Will that work?"_

"Maybe. Let's give it a shot."

_"Right!"_

_Tick._ Alecto charge forward, drawing the tip of Tempus's minute hand spear across Nosferatu's torso in a wide, shallow arc. _Tock._ She dodged away from his outstretched hand as he reached towards her, his fingers curving into talons. _Tick._ She whacked his left wrist with the edge of Tempus's buckler. _Tock._ She pulled her arm back and jabbed forward, forcing her adversary to take a step back. _Tick._ She drove the spear into the wound in Nosferatu's shoulder that she'd given him before, the sharp tip sinking even deeper. _Tock._

Nosferatu let out another agonized screech and wrapped his fingers around the pole of the spear, his teeth clenching together. "You… are strong. But…" His beady gaze hardened, and he ripped the spear out of his wound, using a strength he hadn't previously displayed to throw Alecto to the side like she was a ragdoll. "Not. Strong… enough."

_"Ally!"_ Tempus cried. _"Are you okay?"_

"I'm fine," Alecto said, sitting up. "But so is he. I don't understand, what the hell are we doing wrong?"

Nosferatu let out a _hrmph._ "Silly… little… girl… the pain is… still there." He raised a hand and tapped a fingernail to his temple. "Tucked away… for later. Blood hides it… doesn't kill it. But the more you hit me… the more pain there is. More pain there is… more pain gets tucked away. Hard to tell...which is now… and which is for later."

_"The pain from our newest attacks is blending into the old pain. His mind can't tell the difference apart!"_ Tempus said, realization rising in his voice.

"That's… what I said," Nosferatu snapped.

"Well, isn't that just convenient," Alecto said. "It doesn't matter. I'll still find some way to take you down, Nosferatu!"

"Heh… heheh. You want… my soul?" Nosferatu spread his arms wide open. "You can try… to claim it… if you can catch me!" Then he turned on his heel and ran, disappearing into the thick undergrowth of the park's forest.

"Idiot," Alecto muttered. "We're faster than he is, we'll catch up to him easily."

_"Yeah, but he's got the home turf advantage, so to speak. Unless you think that you can navigate that forest in the dark."_

"I don't need to navigate it. I just need to keep up." _Tick._ Alecto ran forward, keeping her gaze trained on the dark form up ahead. "Tempus, he's shrugging off whatever we're throwing at him. We need to hit him with something that he won't have the opportunity to simply shrug off."

_Tock. "You're not seriously suggesting…"_

_Tick._ "Yeah, I am. If we don't take him out in one shot, we won't be able to take him out at all. I'll try and kill him once we catch up, but if a straight up attack doesn't work, we're going to have to go for it, okay?"

_Tock. "Yeah, but what if it doesn't work? We might not be able to handle this guy. We… we might have to bow out."_

_Tick._ "We are not bowing out, Tempus!" Alecto snapped. "We've already started this fight. We might as well finish it! I'm not just going to give up on the first mission I've taken on in weeks! _Aut vincere aut mori!_"

"If you say so. But if you end up unconscious and bleeding out, I am bailing us out of here. Got it, Ally?"

"Yeah," Alecto said, with more bitterness in her voice than she'd wanted. _"Nil desperandum, _Tempus_. Qui audet adipiscitur, memento!"_

_Tock. "If you say so."_

_Tick._ Alecto continued running forward. The two of them had almost caught up with Nosferatu. Within the span of a few seconds, they would be close enough where she would be able to knock him off his feet. She pulled arm back and swung Tempus forward, fully intending to stab the son of a bitch in his shriveled, twisted hea-

She tripped.

_Tock. _Her foot slipped on the moss that clung to a tree root sticking haphazardly out of the ground, and she fell, landing solidly face-first in the dirt. "_Vae!_" she shouted, pounding her fist against the dirt and making an indent in the soft soil. "_Vae, vae, vae!_"

_"Wow, really nailed that fall,"_ Tempus deadpanned. _"I give it a six, the landing was kind of rusty."_

"_Tace!_" Alecto said. She looked up, trying to focus on something, anything, through the flat darkness that obscured the wooded area that she found herself entrenched in. "Wait. Where'd Nosferatu go?!_ Vae_!" Ire gripped her heart. He'd apparently managed to outrun her as soon as she had fallen. She looked up, just to make sure he wasn't hiding amongst the trees. It was hard to be sure (dark purple and black didn't exactly make for a strong color contrast, after all), but she was relatively certain that he wasn't up there. She got to her feet, dusting the dirt off her cropped jacket and scowling at nothing in particular. "We need to find him. He can't get away."

A low, almost imperceptibly quiet chuckle resonated behind Alecto. She turned too late as a hand wrapped around her ankle and yanked, sending her falling back down to the ground. Honestly, at this point Alecto was starting to wonder what the point of even getting up was if she was just going to be pushed or pulled back down.

Nosferatu, it seemed, had taken advantage of the momentary disorientation that she'd suffered from tripping and had moved behind her, waiting to strike. Now he towered over her, his knife little more than a dark silhouette as he raised it above his head. "You blood… will be delicious. Your soul… will bring me _power._" He thrust the knife downwards.

_Clang. "Non hodie, gratias!"_ Alecto replied, wincing as the force of Nosferatu's attack sent a shock of dull, numbing discomfort shooting through her arm. She knocked the knife away and scrambled away, getting to her feet for the millionth time that evening. "I'm really sick of you, you know that?" she said. "Tempus, you ready?"

_"As ready as I'll ever be!"_

"All right!" She took a deep breath, forcing her heartbeat to steady itself. Then, she and Tempus shouted simultaneously, _"Let's go, Soul Resonance!"_

To resonate the souls of a weapon and meister was not a feat performed casually. It required that both souls not only recognize the wavelengths of each other, but manipulate their own wavelengths to come to a synchronized balance between the two. If the two souls were out of sync or unable to determine each other's wavelengths, the Soul Resonance would fail, often times with disastrous results.

But Alecto and Tempus weren't out of sync, and as the two of their souls sparked together, the joint wavelength reverberating between them, Alecto could feel the strengths of their souls increasing. She held her breath and threw her arm forwards so that Tempus's buckler was parallel to the ground. _"Sundial Spear!"_ she shouted.

Eyes wide in their sunken sockets, Nosferatu took a step backwards as soul energy enveloped Alecto's weapon and her arm, but it was slow, far slower than what would have been natural. A side effect of Sundial Spear; time was in flux, being desynchronized and resynchronized at random as the temporal powers of the two students combined and expanded.

Not that Alecto was complaining, if it meant that Nosferatu couldn't get away in time.

The resonance energy expanded downwards, forming a flat base against the ground to steady Alecto's aim. Tempus's arms spun so that they were both pointing directly at Nosferatu's chest. _"Ready…"_ he said.

"Aim…" Alecto said.

The spear arms glowed even brighter, seemingly melding together into a single beam of resonance energy that rested upon the flat of the spear. _"And… fire!"_

The energy shot forward, streaking through the dark woods and casting a sharp light upon all the foliage in sight. To Alecto, it was a second. But to Nosferatu, it was even quicker. The blink of an eye; that's all it was for him as the spear shot outwards and pierced his torso, passing straight through him and leaving a rather sizable hole before dissipating. The light faded, and all was silent for a moment. No one dared move.

Then Nosferatu exploded into a thousand black ribbons, the wide-eyed look of incomprehension etched across his gaunt features being the last expression that he'd ever make. The ribbons swirled around the Kishin Egg at the core before disappearing.

Sundial Spear faded away, and Tempus shifted back into his human form, massaging his shoulders and wincing slightly. "I'm so glad that we don't have to do that often. You're luck, Ally; having my arms fused together by resonance energy feels weird as hell."

"Don't you worry," Alecto said. "I don't think we'll have to pull that off again for quite some time. "She gestured to the twisted crimson echo of a human soul that Nosferatu had left behind. Perhaps her lingering irritation was lending itself to bias, but his soul seemed even uglier and more unnatural than the souls they had collected before. "There you go. Soul number seventeen."

Tempus grimaced. "Ah, yes. The most exhilarating part of hunting ne'er do wells." He ambled over to the Kishin egg, reaching out and pinning the humming soul in his grasp. Tilting his head back slightly, he shoved the soul into his mouth and swallowed it whole, grimacing as he did so. "Ugh. It tasted terrible; like when you bite your lip and you end up tasting the blood."

"Sounds pleasant," Alecto said. "Well, regardless of how terrible his soul tasted, I'm glad we were able to take that sick bastard down. Maybe the people here won't be afraid of leaving their houses anymore."

"Yeah." Tempus stretched. "You would not believe how tired I am. What is it, one twenty-six? Given that and the time it'll take for us to get back to Nevada, I'll be surprised if we get any sleep at all tonight."

"It won't take us that long to get back to Death City," Alecto said. "Transportation for meisters is faster than other methods, remember?" She turned and began to walking in a general direction, hoping it would take her out of the park, or at least back to the path. She'd only walked a few meters, however, when she froze solid in her tracks, stunned realization gripping her heart. "Shit."

"What?"

"I left the tea back at the path!"

* * *

_A/N - This entire arc was created for two reasons: it gave something for Alecto to do while Maka and Soul were in Italy going up against Crona, and it was an excuse to show of what happened when Alecto and Tempus did a Soul Resonance._

_This arc isn't over yet; there's one more chapter in it that'll bring us back to the main canon plot before we move on to the next arc._

_Also, how is it that Stein and spirit were in Nevada one minute and Italy the next? The only conclusion I can come to is that meisters have a special mode of vague transportation that lets them get to places quicker._

_Now, on to the Latin._

_**Nunc:** means "Now"  
_

___**Spuria:** a plural form of "spurius," which has been previously established to mean "bastard"_

_____**Aut vincere aut mori:** "victory or death." Not a particularly healthy mindset to have, Alecto._

_______**Nil desperandum, Tempus. Qui audet adipiscitur, memento!:** "Never despair, Tempus. Who dares, wins, remember!"_

_________**Non hodie, gratias!:** "Not today, thank you!"_

_________Next chapter will be posted some point within the week. In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review letting me know what you think!_

_________- Diana "Nocte"_


End file.
